PingThings, an innovator in predictive intelligence for the electric utility industry, today announced that it received funding from GE Ventures and Frost Data Capital to grow initial deployments at major U.S. utilities and to expand its sales team. The investment is part of Frost I3, the Incubator for the Industrial Internet, created last year in partnership with Frost Data Capital and GE Software. Financial details were not disclosed.

'The hyper-growth of data that's inundating utilities is a real challenge for the industry, and also a big opportunity'

In the U.S., it's estimated that unplanned electric utility outages cost $120 billion each year. PingThings' PredictiveGrid™ focuses on gleaning intelligence from tremendous volumes of high fidelity, high volume electric utility data. PingThings' analytics platform enhances grid stability with predictive analysis for a wide array of adverse events, such as a failing transformer or a geomagnetic disruption (GMD) event, enabling a proactive response that can protect service levels, increase customer satisfaction, and provide significant cost savings.

Executive Quotes

'The hyper-growth of data that's inundating utilities is a real challenge for the industry, and also a big opportunity,' said PingThings CEO, Rich Sootkoos. 'We are helping utilities drive value and a return on the hundreds of billions of dollars already invested in the smart grid initiative. We are thrilled that leaders in the utilities vertical, such as GE, can see the potential value that we bring to the industry.'

'From our biggest machines to our smallest devices, physical assets across the industrial world are being connected to the Internet at an incredible pace. If we can take that network of smart meters, sensors and other intelligent systems and merge it with predictive analytics, then utilities will be able to detect problems before they occur or isolate events so they don't cascade,' said Bill Ruh, vice president, GE Software. 'PingThings is a great example of the type of disruptive software that industries need to scale up the Industrial Internet, and we're delighted to be joining Frost Data Capital to make an investment in the company.'

'PingThings is a perfect demonstration of our how our investment in Frost I3 works,' said Stuart Frost, managing partner and CEO of Frost Data Capital. 'The industrial IoT market is undergoing huge changes, and in order to innovate during this evolutionary shift, investing in new technology is critical. The Frost I3 partnership with GE enables us to work collectively to identify, guide, nurture, productize, and market new solutions. Our unique approach provides relevant, disruptive solutions today that will influence tomorrow.'

For more information on PingThings and its transformative approach to improving grid stability for electric utilities, please visit us at http://pingthings.io.

About PingThings

PingThings brings predictive intelligence solutions using its PredictiveGrid™ platform to the electric utility industry. Its revolutionary PredictiveGrid™ platform combines sensor data, predictive analytics and embedded expertise to help electrical utility companies optimize asset health, minimize environmental disruption and improve grid stability. PingThings is a Frost Data Capital company and is based in San Juan Capistrano, California. For more information, visit http://pingthings.io.

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) imagines things others don't, builds things others can't and delivers outcomes that make the world work better. GE brings together the physical and digital worlds in ways no other company can. In its labs and factories and on the ground with customers, GE is inventing the next industrial era to move, power, build and cure the world. www.ge.com

About Frost Data Capital

Frost Data Capital is a combined incubator and venture capital firm with a unique approach, designed specifically to capture some of the enormous value that will be created as the 'Big Data' revolution unfolds. Based out of Southern California, Frost Data Capital has built an eco-system of innovative start-ups, with deep expertise in big data, entrepreneurialism, advanced technology, analytics, and the Industrial Internet. For more information, please visit our website at www.frostdatacapital.com.