What is the 10-questions interview? Regularly, we interview a promising startup or scale-up in the climate & energy tech ecosystem and ask them our 10 questions to showcase their technology, inspire the sector with their ambition and better understand their needs. With our platform (ZERO), we want to put these bold innovators on a pedestal and introduce them to our audience. Do you want to connect with this startup/scale-up, feel free to contact us at info@platformzero.co! 

JungleAI is a tech company that uses AI to make businesses run more smoothly. Their smart tools help predict outcomes, automate tasks, and improve decision-making, saving time and money for companies in industries like manufacturing and logistics.

In this Ten Questions interview, you can read the valuable insights of co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer Sílvio Rodrigues.

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself, who are you and what makes you tick?

Hey everyone, I’m Silvio, one of Jungle’s co-founders. I greatly enjoy combining my different passions for Multi-Objective Optimisation, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, and my background in Electrical Engineering. Currently, I’m helping Jungle develop a distributed time-series prediction pipeline that can extract value from any dataset regardless of size. I’m also pushing forward the current research on predictive maintenance strategies for electrical assets, with a strong focus on renewable energy and maritime.

2. What is the core of your mission (the bold goal) that you are pursuing?

3. What are you building/developing with your organization?

At Jungle we are using state-of-the-art AI technology to solve society’s most pressing challenges. We create solutions that aren’t meant to replace human labour and perspective but to empower people to understand and operate their machines to the fullest. Canopy, our predictive maintenance and performance optimisation tool, is the result of our work towards helping teams and machines thrive. We started off by working with renewable energy operators, and in 2022 we expanded to the maritime industry.

4. What makes your team that you are working with, special?

We are lucky to have a team of people passionate about our technological craft and innovation. Their curiosity and expertise in machine learning research aligns perfectly with our motivation to positively impact society and to keep building a strong business network in renewables and maritime industries. Extending our expertise to the sectors we operate in is essential to keep developing meaningful solutions for our customers. Luckily, everyone at Jungle has always embraced the challenge of truly knowing the industries we are working for as much as the technologies behind our solutions. 

We hold pride in our talented team and their efforts to advance the Jungle mission – which comes easy when you work and learn from enthusiastic individuals like them! 

5. What is your view on our climate challenge and how do you want to contribute?

Climate change is the ultimate challenge that humanity faces. The recent floods in the south of Brazil are the latest event displaying the dimension of the issue at hand. Starting Jungle and working on improving our AI-based solutions to reduce operational complexity and improve machine performance is a great way to contribute at scale to a planet that is powered by renewable energy.

6. What is your view on your sector and what is needed to accelerate change?

In the renewable energy sector, the speed of decision-making is key to accelerating the penetration of AI-based solutions. When focusing on the maritime industry, it is the nascency of AI tool adoption that is hampering progress. There are not many AI players nor companies that seem to understand the advantages of such digital solutions plus, they also appear to be unprepared to start such a digital revolution. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of standardised and industry-wide databases with historical sensor measurements. These are paramount to unblocking the usage of AI solutions. 

7. What are some recent highlights that really make you proud?

When starting Jungle, our vision was to create a model-based solution that could be scaled across industries. Our focus has therefore been on model development and value creation for our customers. Scaling into maritime operations, we are very proud that our solution can help ship owners in the same way that it does with wind farm owners and operators. Other than that, every time our customers use Canopy on heavy machinery to predict major component failing, it always feels like a victory!

8. What is the biggest challenge you see for your company to grow even faster?

In the maritime industry, not all companies are ready to innovate and use new technologies, a contrast to the renewable energy sector where we started. A lot of companies don’t store their data yet, which slows down the projects once we get started. So to all vessel owners out there, start getting the data from your ships and allow companies like Jungle to create value for you. 

9. Are there needs (network, funding, people) that our community could provide?

We are always looking for new ways into the market, so it would be great if we could present our work at one of your events to meet your network!

10. What are the 3 inspiring startups/scale-ups you think we should interview next?

• rebase.energy – they are working on a simple yet very powerful concept: make it easy to use, in a centralised manner, weather forecasting from different Numerical Weather Providers.
• MO4 – enhances the planning and execution of offshore operations, empowering companies to optimise their vessel performance. We are working with them to help vessel operators minimise weather downtime (MO4) and technical downtime (Jungle AI).
• loka – solid AI-oriented consultancy company with great company culture
• Nortech AI – they bring to the maritime market easy-to-install hardware with a powerful software stack that reduces installation costs. They are doing God’s work to allow AI-based predictive maintenance solutions to be deployed in maritime space.

Enthousiastic about JungleAI or interested in this topic? Then contact us at info@platformzero.co!