Championing open innovation directed at the streamlining of overall mining operations

Tokyo, Japan October 21, 2020 —-Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6305; “Hitachi Construction Machinery”) announced that Hitachi Construction Machinery have reached an agreement with Chrysalix Venture Capital (“Chrysalix”) to invest as a Limited Partner in the Chrysalix RoboValley Fund. Through this investment, Hitachi Construction Machinery will utilize Chrysalix’s extensive network in the mining and industrial innovation field to strengthen its open innovation with startups that possess the latest technologies for mining in areas such as robotics, IoT, and AI.

With the trends toward the autonomous operation and electrification of mining machinery as well as the growing need for solutions to streamline and optimize not only mining machinery but also overall mining operations, many startups have started offering new technologies and services in recent years.

Until now, the Hitachi Construction Machinery Group has used the “One Hitachi” initiative, which brings together a wide range of Hitachi Group technologies, as well as external technologies and services to advance open innovation that creates new forms of value. In addition, the Group launched the “Venture Investment Promotion Project” in April 2020 to strengthen collaboration with startups and recently decided to invest in the fund as part of the first step in the project’s activities.

Chrysalix is a venture capital firm located in Canada and the Netherlands, which was founded in 2001 to invest in startups with a focus on the resource productivity, energy innovation, and environmental sustainability fields. The Chrysalix RoboValley Fund that Hitachi Construction Machinery will invest in was founded in November 2018, and targets investments in disruptive innovations using digital solutions, AI, IoT, sensors and advanced robotics technologies for resource intensive industries, such as metals and mining, machinery and manufacturing. The fund possesses a particularly extensive network within the mining industry.

Going forward, the Hitachi Construction Machinery Group will utilize Chrysalix’s network to strengthen collaboration with startups through its project team. By vigorously promoting open innovation not only with the mining business but various other business partners and startups, the Hitachi Construction Machinery Group will help resolve customer issues.

In addition to mining machinery (ultra-large hydraulic excavators and dump trucks), the Hitachi Construction Machinery Group’s mining business also develops and provides dump truck autonomous haulage system (AHS) and fleet management system (FMS). In order to improve the safety and productivity of customer work sites and reduce life-cycle costs, the Group plans to carry out verification tests of autonomous ultra-large hydraulic excavators and start offering ConSite® Mine to perform predictive detection of mining machinery failures through remote monitoring in fiscal 2021.

“ConSite” is a registered trademark of Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.

September 30, 2020: