Cognite

Cognite
Name	Cognite
Industry	Industrial software, Industrial IoT, Digital twin
Founded	0 2016
Founders	John Markus Lervik, Geir Engdahl, Stein Danielsen
Headquarters	Oslo, Norway
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	John Markus Lervik (CEO)
Products	Cognite Data Fusion
Website	cognite.com

Cognite. Cognite is a global industrial software as a service company specializing in data contextualization and industrial digitalization. The company's core product, Cognite Data Fusion, is an industrial dataops platform designed to liberate and contextualize complex operational data from sources like SCADA systems, engineering information management systems, and enterprise resource planning software. Founded by veterans of the Norwegian technology sector, Cognite aims to empower heavy-asset industries such as oil and gas, renewable energy, and manufacturing with actionable insights to improve safety, sustainability, and efficiency.

Overview

Cognite operates at the intersection of big data analytics and industrial automation, providing a cloud-based platform that serves as a foundational layer for digital transformation initiatives. The company's technology is built to handle the scale and heterogeneity of data generated in sectors like power generation and heavy industry, where integrating time-series data with 3D models and document management systems is critical. By structuring disparate data into a coherent knowledge graph, the platform enables applications in predictive maintenance, asset performance management, and emissions monitoring. Its approach has attracted significant investment from firms like Accel, TCV, and Aker BP, positioning it as a key player in the Industry 4.0 landscape.

History

Cognite was founded in 2016 in Oslo by John Markus Lervik, Geir Engdahl, and Stein Danielsen, with early backing from the Norwegian industrial investment firm Aker ASA. Lervik, previously a co-founder of the visualization software company Kongsberg's Kongsberg Digital, leveraged his experience in real-time simulation to address industrial data fragmentation. The company secured a major partnership with Microsoft in 2019 to run Cognite Data Fusion on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. A significant funding round of $150 million led by TCV in 2020 accelerated global expansion, followed by further investment from Accel and Aker BP in 2021, valuing the company in the unicorn range.

Technology and products

The company's flagship offering, Cognite Data Fusion, is an open API platform that contextualizes industrial data by connecting siloed sources such as PI System from OSIsoft, IBM Maximo, SAP, and Autodesk designs. It employs extract, transform, load processes, machine learning, and natural language processing to create a unified, queryable data model. Key capabilities include creating digital twin representations of physical assets, enabling augmented reality experiences via integration with tools like Microsoft HoloLens, and providing low-code application development environments for building custom solutions. The platform's architecture is designed for scalability, supporting deployments for major operators like Equinor and Shell plc.

Applications and use cases

Cognite's technology is deployed across multiple verticals to solve complex operational challenges. In the oil and gas sector, clients like Aker BP and Equinor use it for subsea production optimization and carbon capture and storage monitoring. Within renewable energy, it aids in wind farm performance analytics and grid management. Manufacturing applications include production line digital twin simulations for companies like OMV and Yara International. Other notable use cases involve predictive maintenance for offshore drilling equipment, energy efficiency analysis in liquefied natural gas plants, and workforce digitalization for field technicians using mobile computing solutions.

Partnerships and acquisitions

Cognite has established a broad ecosystem of technology and integration partnerships to extend its platform's reach. A cornerstone relationship with Microsoft includes deep integration with Azure Digital Twins and Azure Synapse Analytics. The company is also a partner in the Open Industrial Data Interoperability initiative. In 2021, Cognite acquired Expert Analytics, a Norwegian machine learning startup, to bolster its artificial intelligence capabilities for anomaly detection. Other strategic alliances include collaborations with Bentley Systems for industrial infrastructure modeling, C3.ai for enterprise AI applications, and Siemens for integrating MindSphere IoT data.

See also

* Industrial Internet of Things * Digital twin * Data contextualization * Industry 4.0 * Aker ASA * John Markus Lervik

Category:Software companies of Norway Category:Industrial software companies Category:Companies based in Oslo Category:Technology companies established in 2016