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An Educated Perspective 

FYLD: Using AI to enhance safety and productivity

Karl and Shelly

The company

FYLD is a startup that emerged from our venture studio, Koru, with the idea to make field work safer and more productive through technology. The field workforce mobility solution delivers dynamic risk assessment through video and voice analytics, enabling field workers to record what they see in real time. FYLD's AI-driven engine then flags potentially dangerous working conditions and prompts control measures. By creating digital worksite dashboards and detailed risk assessments, the technology saves time and reduces paperwork. It also makes worksites safer. 

The overview

Through our venture studio Koru, we're helping our portfolio companies innovate and find new ways to create value from existing assets. Watch how FYLD evolved from an idea into a workforce mobility solution being used in the field worldwide. 

The opportunity

Utility and construction crews do essential work, but being in the field brings both safety and operational challenges. FYLD helps these workers get their job done by helping to bridge the gap between a field worker and it's remote manager.

The company has reimagined remote field operations by replacing paper-based risk assessments with a digital solution that improves workers’ safety and efficiency by providing coaching moments to the people in the field to let them do their job safely and productively.

 

Construction site

The OTPP difference

Through Koru, Ontario Teachers' encourages and enables innovations like the FYLD field workforce mobility solution. More than an investor, we connected our portfolio company SGN with FYLD, making the UK gas distributor FYLD's first satisfied customer. SGN manages the distribution of natural and green gas to six million homes and businesses across the south of England and Scotland. SGN’s relationship with Ontario Teachers'  and Koru gave them the confidence to collaborate with FYLD and within three months, 750 of their workers were on board.

Construction site

The OTPP difference

Through Koru, Ontario Teachers' encourages and enables innovations like the FYLD field workforce mobility solution. More than an investor, we connected our portfolio company SGN with FYLD, making the UK gas distributor FYLD's first satisfied customer. SGN manages the distribution of natural and green gas to six million homes and businesses across the south of England and Scotland. SGN’s relationship with Ontario Teachers'  and Koru gave them the confidence to collaborate with FYLD and within three months, 750 of their workers were on board.

The results

In the first year of deployment, FYLD reduced worker injuries and incidents at SGN by 20% and cut time spent on risk assessments by 75%. In addition:

  • SGN was able to better manage crew fatigue and reduce the number of kilometers supervisors spent driving to various sites.
  • FYLD is now used by over 100 companies across the U.K., the U.S., and the Americas. Its global expansion continues into a number of territories.
  • FYLD's technology has won numerous innovation awards and is now being deployed across water infrastructure, highway construction and maintenance and the installation of 5G cabling.

It's a very natural relationship, which Teachers' lets organically take shape with a bit of coaching on both sides, but it never feels imposed. And that to me is a really good way of working.

Shelley Copsey
CEO FYLD
Shelley Copsey, FYLD CEO

FYLD CEO discusses innovating for safety and efficiency

Watch an interview with Shelley Copsey, CEO of FYLD, as she sits down with Ontario Teachers' Victor Scheibehenne discusses how partnering with us through our venture studio, Koru, enabled emerging technology to thrive in the utility and construction space.  

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