Henkel invests in technology start-up

Henkel Adhesive Technologies invests in Direct-C, to strengthens its capabilities for predictive maintenance solutions. With the investment Henkel aims to expand its maintenance, repair and overhaul business.

“The combination of the Direct-C sensor technology and our broad MRO portfolio and expertise offers great potentials for innovative end-to-end solutions,” said Paolo Bavaj, head of corporate venturing, Henkel. “The contributions of start-up technologies are crucial for us to develop predictive maintenance solutions for our customers. Together we aim to develop digital business models that help innovating our traditional MRO business towards the increasing demands for novel and efficient industrial IoT applications. Thus, the investment perfectly fits to our business strategy to implement and enable predictive maintenance solutions across industries under our constantly growing Loctite Pulse portfolio.”

Founded in 2014, Direct-C developed a polymer nanocomposite sensor material that is adaptable to polymer matrices and sensing parameters. The technology is designed to react to liquid hydrocarbons and provides a leak detection solution for the monitoring of the oil and gas infrastructure.