I entered the editorial world in the late 1990s during the excitement of something called PC-based control. Technologists of the time were convinced that they could knock off the leading PLC manufacturers with cheaper and easier-to-use technology based on the common personal computer.
This was also the heyday of Open Modular Architecture Controller (OMAC)—a group of engineers working on a standards-based PLC built on a CompactPCI computer that the leading suppliers could build best-in-class modules for but reducing cost and vendor lock-in.
Later, I interviewed many company leaders convinced that their updated PLCs would displace the two acknowledged PLC leaders at the top of the market share pyramid.
All failed.
I asked each one simple question—how are you going to go to market when the leaders have salespeople embedded at every possible customer?
Now comes news that a leading venture capital firm (called by someone on LinkedIn the leading and most influential VC in our space) has invested in yet another attempt to replace the leading PLCs.
I ask of them the same question. Further, does the world really need a new PLC? Are there other customer problems out there to solve?
Here is the news. I wish them well. It will be a tough climb in a mature market. I’m interested in seeing how they will tackle, not the technology, but the marketing.
Momenta, the Industrial Impact venture capital firm, has led the seed round in Autonomy backing the company’s vision to modernize how PLC software is built, deployed, and governed. Through its Autonomy Edge platform, Autonomy brings cloud‑native development discipline to industrial control without compromising determinism, safety, or security.
This investment reflects Momenta’s conviction that industrial automation has reached a true inflection point. As factories face rising cyber risk, tighter labor constraints, and accelerating demands for flexibility, control systems can no longer remain static, proprietary, or isolated from modern software practices. The next phase of automation must be software-defined, interoperable, and designed for continuous change.
Industrial automation remains constrained by proprietary PLC hardware and closed development environments. These systems lock engineers into outdated workflows, fragment IT and OT responsibilities, and slow modernization at the moment when factories need faster outcome-focused iteration.
]Autonomy addresses this constraint directly. Rather than replacing control systems, it modernizes how they are developed and governed. By applying DevOps discipline to PLC software while preserving real-time execution at the edge, the platform aligns control engineering with the operational realities of modern industrial environments.
Autonomy Edge is built on OpenPLC, the world’s leading open-source, IEC 61131-3 compliant, Programmable Logic Controller. Engineers develop PLC logic directly in the browser, with no local installation, and deploy virtual PLCs to any Linux-based industrial device through the Autonomy Orchestrator agent.
This architecture delivers a pragmatic and efficient path for iterative modernization. Existing infrastructure stays in place while control software becomes portable, versioned, and easier to secure. Virtual PLCs run in isolated execution environments and remain centrally managed, combining operational safety with modern lifecycle management.
The result is a rare combination: cloud-native development paired with deterministic edge execution.
A core differentiator of Autonomy Edge is its execution model. Control logic runs in strict network isolation while updates, monitoring, and governance are handled remotely. This air-gapped execution approach significantly reduces attack surfaces while preserving operational visibility, reflecting how industrial operators actually manage risk in production environments.
“We did not just move PLCs to the cloud. We redesigned how control software should be built and governed,” said Thiago Alves, Founder and CEO of Autonomy. “Autonomy Edge modernizes automation without breaking real-time guarantees. Open standards, edge execution, and cloud-native workflows are no longer optional. They are the future of industrial control.”
Autonomy builds on more than a decade of open-source development and field validation:
- OpenPLC Runtime with 1,400+ GitHub stars and 560+ forks
- Cited in more than 100 peer-reviewed research papers on industrial cybersecurity
- Adopted globally by universities for automation and ICS security education
- Industry partnerships with pre-eminent companies like FreeWave Technologies, Arduino, and Movensys
- The release of OpenPLC Editor v4 marks a major platform milestone, delivering a modern interface, cross-platform support, and native integration with Autonomy Edge’s cloud management capabilities.
Autonomy Edge introduces software engineering practices that industrial teams can operationalize today, including browser-based IEC 61131-3 development, cloud-managed versioning and deployment, and hardware-agnostic execution across industrial PCs, gateways, and edge devices.
The global PLC market exceeds $11 billion and is under increasing pressure from cybersecurity requirements, workforce constraints, and the need adapt quickly to changing requirements. Software-defined control, open ecosystems, and edge-native architectures are shifting from optional to essential.
Momenta sees this transition clearly because we operate at the intersection of industrial execution, software platforms, and long-cycle infrastructure. Autonomy exemplifies the kind of operator-aligned innovation required to modernize control systems without disrupting production.
Industrial control is no longer defined only by reliability. It is now defined by adaptability. Autonomy is building the control layer that enables industry to evolve safely and at scale.
Click on the Follow button at the bottom of the page to subscribe to a weekly email update of posts. Click on the mail icon to subscribe to additional email thoughts.
