Lannion, France-based Actility attracted $75 million in Series D funding to expand its industrial Internet of Things (IoT) platform into new vertical markets like smart buildings, energy and utilities, and logistics. The company also plans to use the funds to increase its reach in the U.S. market.
Creadev, Bosch, and Inmarsat participated in the round as well as existing investors Idinvest, Bpifrance, Ginko Ventures, KPN, Orange Digital Ventures, Swisscom, and Foxconn.
Actility said there will be a second closing later this month that will involve more investors.
Actility’s ThingPark IoT platform works with low-power wide area (LPWA) networks to manage the communications between sensors, base stations, and applications. It also has an operations support system (OSS) that activates devices and gateways and provides data management, storage, and analytics. The company is working solely with IoT networks that use unlicensed spectrum like LoRaWAN, which operates in the unlicensed spectrum bands at 900 MHz and 430 MHz. The company says it does this to keep module costs down to $10 per module and connectivity costs as low as $1 per year.
Actility has some interesting partners. The company announced a year ago that it was collaborating with Cisco to develop new business models for the industrial IoT and will work with the networking giant to sell its products to verticals like smart cities and connected factories.
The company also is working with Dutch operator KPN on the company’s LoRaWAN network throughout the Netherlands.
Earlier this year, the company named Tom Wheeler, former chairman of the FCC and the former president and CEO of the CTIA, to its board of directors.
