Yorkshire AI Labs announces first investment in firm supporting global food giants

Its first deal is to be with a newly-created company IntelliAM, which is based in Dinnington and led by Tom Clayton, founder of leading UK maintenance engineering and asset management specialist 53North.

Founded in 2013, 53North serves half of the world’s top 12 food and beverage groups with major customers including ADM, Mars, Müller and Weetabix.

Mr Clayton is CEO of the IntelliAM with Mr Richards the chairman, while Professor Keith Ridgway CBE, founder of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre at the University of Sheffield, is a board member and parliamentary advisor.

The company has been described as “a new Artificial Intelligence platform to help global food and beverage companies cut downtime and boost productivity”.

Mr Clayton said: “Food and beverage companies are under huge pressure to increase production using existing assets to meet demand while reducing energy consumption.

“We are excited to have partnered with Yorkshire AI Labs to help bring IntelliAM to market and tackle these difficult challenges.”

Mr Richards added: “IntelliAM is a ground-breaking company that is using the practical application of Artificial Intelligence to boost manufacturing productivity by huge percentage points and in a sustainable way.

“We are thrilled to be backing Tom and his talented team and look forward to helping them achieve their significant growth potential.”

A spokesperson said: “The company has a strong pipeline of opportunities based on long-term relationships with blue chip customers and leading suppliers via 53North.

"The opportunities include proof-of-value projects with a number of multinationals.

"The Artificial Intelligence platform harnesses data to provide insights and instruction to deliver measurable improvements in asset management through performance, availability, quality, efficiency and safety.

"It offers manufacturers a new way of operating with insights into machine health, equipment effectiveness, raw materials, supply chains, energy consumption and carbon emissions.”

The deal has been announced just days after Mr Richards gave his first media interview since leaving tech firm WANdisco in April in the fallout to a “sophisticated” fraud scandal that an independent investigation subsequently blamed on an unnamed senior sales employee.

An FCA investigation into the matter is still ongoing but Mr Richards told The Yorkshire Post he had personally lost around £20m in share value from the “devastating” situation.

Mr Richards said he is excited about the potential of Yorkshire AI Labs and details of a second investment deal are due to be announced in the near future.