Wise Telemetry: A Pittsburgh Startup Success Story

If you can dream it in Pittsburgh, you can also build it here, too.

Just ask Eric Wise, Founder of Wise Telemetry, a provider of remote monitoring devices and services for the industrial gas industry.

In fact, he not only built it in the Steel City, he just sold it to Montreal-based Otodata earlier this year! The news gets better because the company plans to expand its presence in the region.

Founded in 2014, Wise Telemetry’s systems monitor and transmit asset information such as tank pressure and fill level via the latest cellular networks. With Wise Telemetry, gas distributors are able ensure their assets are working in peak condition and that their customers never run out of product. The company has the capacity to monitor every aspect of gas distribution from tanker trucks and bulk tanks to dewars and cylinders. 

“It’s really a Pittsburgh story,” said Wise. “When I was a junior at Carnegie Mellon, my grandparents were using medical oxygen at the time…and I was interested in making a device that would show how much time was left on their oxygen tanks. I got a small grant from CMU to fund the project.”

“After graduating, I still had interest in pursuing the project and eventually got enough feedback from people that this could be viable. Long story short, we very quickly realized that medical oxygen wasn’t a direct fit. So, we were talking to the people who deliver these oxygen tanks, and they said, ‘If you could remotely tell me how much product was left in our other gas tanks like nitrogen or CO2, I would know when to make my deliveries.  I’d pay for that.’”

Wise and his team went back to the drawing board and deployed a pilot with a locally owned, family run business that is still a customer today. To build and fund the company, Wise Telemetry participated in Project Olympus and AlphaLab Gear and set up headquarters in a Keystone Innovation Zone. It’s been a long journey with Pittsburgh as the backdrop, and Wise is thrilled to keep growing operations under Otodata.

“The Wise team is thrilled to be part of Otodata. Joining forces allows us to provide our customers with additional products, services and innovative pricing structures, enabling them to monitor every asset and receive an instant return on their investment, both locally and abroad,” he said.

Otodata designs, develops, and manufactures market leading remote level monitoring products and technologies for a variety of industries. The acquisition gives Otodata the opportunity to grow in the United States, and now make Pittsburgh a homebase for growth and innovation. Definitely a gas, gas, gas for all involved!