HighByte founders (from left): John Harrington, Tony Paine, and Torey Penrod-Cambra. (Photo/Elle Darcy)

HighByte, a Portland-based industrial software startup, has raised nearly $1 million in debt capital from a cadre of angel investors and early-stage venture capital firms to fuel its continued growth.

The newly raised capital, the company’s first institutional fundraising, comes in the form of $675,000 in convertible debt raised from the Maine Venture Fund, Switzerland-based Momenta Ventures, and several local angel investors; and $250,000 in the form of a long-term, low-interest loan from Maine Technology Institute. The financing provides HighByte with the capital runway needed to boost sales, marketing, and other business development activities, as well as add to the company’s headcount in 2020, according to a news release.

HighByte’s software seeks to address the next-generation data architecture needs of industrial companies. In January, the company released HighByte Intelligence Hub Version 1.0, the first DataOps solution purpose-built for industrial environments.

“These are challenging times for our manufacturing community as we start to understand the impact COVID-19 and other global factors will have on safety, productivity, and supply chain,” said HighByte CEO Tony Paine. “This makes it more important than ever to find partners who believe in our team, vision, and ability to execute in order to make industrial transformation a reality for our customers. All of our investors bring more than just cash to the table. They are strategic partners who share in our core values of honesty, commitment, and collaboration.”

To date, HighByte has funded the company through founder contributions and $100,000 in non-dilutive grants from MTI.

HighByte CEO Tony Paine, along with his co-founders Torey Penrod-Cambra and John Harrington, are all veterans of Kepware Technologies, a Portland-based industrial software company. Paine served as CEO of Kepware from 2009 to 2016, when PTC, a Boston-based enterprise software company, acquired Kepware for $100 million.

Corson “Corky” Ellis, Kepware’s founder and former chairman, is also an investor in HighByte, as is Brett Austin, Kepware’s former president.

Ellis told Maine Startups Insider that he thinks about three things when deciding to invest in a tech company.

  1. Are the team members dedicated and do they have deep domain expertise?
  2. Is there deep programming talent on the team?
  3. Are they capable of making their product the best in the world?

“Things like ‘total addressable market’ and ‘go to market channel’ are down the list for me. Build the best product you can, and you will figure out how to sell it,” Ellis said. “So, for me, Highbyte was easy. First, I worked with all three of these people (Tony, Torey, and John), and know that they are smart, dedicated, and principled. I also know that Tony is a great programmer. With their Kepware background, they know their market intimately. And yes, I have complete confidence that their product is already the best in the world. So, it was an easy decision for me.”

Momenta Ventures is a Switzerland-based VC firm that invests in technology companies that it believes are driving the future of energy, manufacturing, and supply chain.

“We are hyper-focused on accelerating digital industry disrupters,” said Ken Forster, Momenta’s executive director. “We’re investing in HighByte because we believe the company will help redefine collaboration between OT and IT and bring about the digitalization of traditional operating technology systems. The founders have an intimate knowledge of industrial data from their time at Kepware and have a proven ability to operationalize.”

Maine Venture Fund also invested in the company.

“HighByte is an exciting addition to our portfolio as it represents a market and solution offering that are well-positioned for significant growth,” said John Burns, managing director of Maine Venture Fund. “Innovative technology like HighByte Intelligence Hub will help add high-quality technical jobs to Maine’s workforce and contribute to the state’s evolving economy.”