# Guidewheel

> Guidewheel sells a hardware-enabled FactoryOps subscription that clips non-invasive electrical sensors onto almost any industrial machine, turns its power draw into a live operating signal, and gives factory teams dashboards, alerts, OEE tracking, root-cause tools and predictive-maintenance insights. Founded in 2018 as Safi Analytics, the San Francisco public benefit corporation found its market by following customers away from energy reporting and toward the more urgent problem of lost production time.

- **Founded:** 2018
- **Headquarters:** San Francisco, United States
- **Founders:** Lauren Dunford (CEO and Co-Founder), Weston McBride (CTO and Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** Approximately 100 employees; LinkedIn listed 100 employees and supplied company data listed 98 in 2026.
- **Products:** FactoryOps, Scout, StateSense AI, Implementation and customer success
- **Notable:** Selected as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer in 2022., Expanded from an energy-management product into a FactoryOps platform used by hundreds of manufacturers., Penn Color reported a 50% uptime increase on pilot assets and 30-35% higher equipment utilization across U.S. plants.

## Products & services

- **FactoryOps** — A cloud platform combining non-invasive current sensors, live machine-state monitoring, OEE and cycle tracking, scoreboards, alerts, issue tagging, root-cause analysis, energy monitoring and multi-site reporting.
- **Scout** — An AI-powered predictive-maintenance layer that analyzes existing Guidewheel sensor data for anomalies and warns teams about potential equipment problems without additional hardware.
- **StateSense AI** — Machine-state intelligence described by Guidewheel as anomaly detection, pattern recognition and predictive insight built on its FactoryOps data layer.
- **Implementation and customer success** — Dedicated onboarding, sensor-installation support, training and ongoing in-person or virtual customer support.

## Achievements

- Selected as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer in 2022.
- Expanded from an energy-management product into a FactoryOps platform used by hundreds of manufacturers.
- Penn Color reported a 50% uptime increase on pilot assets and 30-35% higher equipment utilization across U.S. plants.
- Weatherables reported a 12% increase in OEE.
- Pack Labs reported a 40% reduction in downtime within six months.
- A multi-department packaging case study reported downtime falling from 6.8 to 3.4 hours per day per machine over five months.
- Raised a $31 million Series B in August 2024.
- Contributed factory-operations expertise to the World Economic Forum's 2025 report on physical AI.

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Published its Pilot, Prove, Scale approach to real-time Andon alerts and said typical pilots cost $5,000-$15,000, while noting that results vary by facility.
- **2026-03** — Argued that industrial AI should sit above existing PLC, SCADA and HMI systems instead of forcing an OT rip-and-replace.
- **2026-03** — North American Steel Alliance announced Guidewheel as an operational supplier.
- **2025-08** — Appointed Charles Lawson chief revenue officer to lead global go-to-market expansion.
- **2025-05** — Lauren Dunford delivered the TED Talk 'The future isn't just coded, it's built.'
- **2025-02** — Introduced Plant Pulse mapping and FactoryOps Findings benchmarking content based on anonymized machine data.
- **2024-08** — Closed a $31 million Series B led by BlackRock and Temasek's Decarbonization Partners fund.

## Links

- Website: https://www.guidewheel.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/guidewheel/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/guidewheel1
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN7e2ulUuA2aclBazQCIeEA
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guidewheel/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/guidewheelsoftware

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/guidewheel
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-22