In one more sign that the enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) software market continues to grow, Incuity Software Inc. this week announced it has raised $5 million in a new round of venture capital financing. The cash infusion, from venture capital firms American River Ventures and Palomar Ventures, brings total investment in the Mission Viejo, CA, company over the past 18 months to $7.3 million, according to Incuity Chief Operating Officer John Nichols. The funding deal follows the acquisition a year ago of EMI pioneer Lighthammer Inc. by SAP AG, which has since renamed the Lighthammer product xMII. EMI competitor ActivPlant Corp. earlier this month reported a 50% growth in revenues over the past year. And EMI vendor Informance International Inc. (Northbrook, IL) late last year raised venture financing from Mayfield, New Enterprise Associates, and Cargill Ventures. The rising demand for EMI software is being driven by manufacturers' need for improved visibility into production and financial trends across multiple plants. According to a recent survey conducted by AMR Research (Boston), 75% of manufacturers interviewed said improving visibility into multi-site production trend data is "very important." In some cases, the report said, manufacturers are beginning to implement EMI tools to get access to that data in lieu of manufacturing execution systems. EMI tools such as Incuity's allow manufacturers to aggregate manufacturing information from a variety of sources, put that data into context by plugging it into a manufacturing intelligence data model, and analyze the information. Incuity's tools, for example, allow manufacturers to perform key performance indicator monitoring and alerting, downtime analysis, and reporting and process optimization analysis. Incuity got its start as a software development house. Originally called DataWorks Systems, the company's most significant partnership has been with Invensys plc's Wonderware MES business unit, which in 1998 signed a five-year agreement to resell DataWorks' tool set as Wonderware's ActiveFactory manufacturing intelligence product. That agreement was terminated last year. Wonderware retained the ActiveFactory product name, and Incuity held onto the intellectual property. Incuity launched its post-ActiveFactory product -- Incuity EMI -- last July. The product supports a wide range of data sources. Whereas ActiveFactory only works with Wonderware's IndustrialSQL server, Incuity EMI can access data from a number of sources including data historians, control systems, databases, and business systems. Incuity EMI includes native integrations with the OSISoft PI data historian, Wonderware's IndustrialSQL server, and Microsoft SQL Server. To access other data sources, Incuity EMI uses standards such as the OPC Foundation's Data Access specification. So far, 100 manufacturing companies are using the Incuity EMI platform. They include 3M, Arkansas Steel, Ballard Power, Enbridge Energy, Frito-Lay, General Mills, Gillette, and Hexion Chemical. So far, Nichols said, the company has targeted manufacturers in oil and gas, specialty chemicals, beverages, and metals. Nichols said Incuity continues to support the ActiveFactory product, which has been licensed by 10,000 companies. Incuity, which currently has 29 employees, will use its new venture funding to beef up its sales and marketing operations, expand its reseller network, improve quality assurance and tech support, and extend its product line, the company said. Currently, Incuity has signed on 20 value-added resellers which collectively address 25 markets, mostly in North America, Nichols said. The company expects to expand that globally to 40 markets by the end of next year.