OTTAWA, ON, October 18, 2018 – Ingu Solutions founders John van Pol and Yvonne van den Berg have been recognized with the Startup Canada Newcomer Entrepreneur Award, an acknowledgement of the rapid progress the pair has made over the past 24 months, emerging as influential players within North America’s oil and gas sector.
Originally from the Netherlands, van Pol and van den Berg are now based in Calgary where they have developed a golf ball-sized inspection solution for the oil and gas industry. Their Pipers® technology uses micro sensors to map the interior of small diameter pipelines, identifying risks that threaten performance and safety with zero-downtime. It is novel technology in an industry hungry for innovation given standard in-line inspection tools date back more than 50 years.
“We came to Canada, specifically Calgary, because of size of the oil and gas market in North America,” said van den Berg. “It was a bet that has paid off. Our progress since arriving here has exceeded our expectations. We have gone from paid pilots of our technology to full commercial engagements in less than two years.”
In 2017, Ingu conducted 11 paid pilots with with industry leaders such as Chevron. This year, following its first operational deployment with Crescent Point Energy in Calgary, the company has undertaken an additional 18 contracts and is booked solid until the end of the year, screening 3 lines per week. In addition, their technology has been selected by the state of North Dakota where the governor has set a zero tolerance policy on pipeline spills. North Dakota conducted an international search and selected Ingu as the pilot partner for their state.
“We are creating the opportunity for the industry to inspect close to 40 per cent of the world’s pipeline assets that are currently inaccessible using status quo techniques and technologies,” said van Pol. “We can do this easily and affordably using micro sensors and machine learning. This is not futuristic stuff. We are doing it today successfully for more than a dozen industry-leading customers and growing.”
Van Pol has recently become a permanent Canadian resident and van den Berg has started the process, along with two other colleagues core to the effort from the Netherlands. The company has added 3 data scientists and a software developer from Calgary to support the company’s growth and they are currently on the hunt for two additional team members to meet demand.
