Kinexon taps $130M funding for edge-based tracking and automation tech
Kinexon, a provider of sensor and edge computing software, has raised $130 million in a Series A financing round to accelerate the development of its automation technology and expand across North America and Europe. The funding round was led by Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P., a private equity firm, along with the participation of BMW i Ventures and Telekom Innovation Pool (TIP), Deutsche Telekom’s strategic investment fund.
The company, based in Germany, provides its technology into a variety of disparate industries, ranging from manufacturing and logistics to sports, and media organizations.
Kinexon’s two core segments — Kinexon Industries, and Kinexon Sports and Media — offer an ecosystem that integrates software and hardware for automation. The adoption of Kinexon automation offers improvement in productivity and sustainability while reducing costs in manufacturing and logistics. The firm’s tracking technology and software across other IoT applications such as worker safety and driverless transport systems.
For sports teams and leagues, the company’s tracking technology is used for player analytics and ball tracking in football, American football, and other sports.
As a part of the sports technology solution, Kinexon provides player tracking, athlete performance, ball tracking, tactical analysis, and fan engagement, collaborating with leading sports associations such as FIFA and NBA. The technology is aimed to enable real-time insights into conditioning, performance, and game strategy. Along with this, Kinexon also offers real-time content generation for analysis of athletic performance and improvements in sports broadcasting with augmented reality applications.
Leveraging ultra-wideband wireless technology, Kinexon’s ball-tracking technology integrates a localization and motion sensor into a ball and streams the ball, and matches the data during an official match. For player tracking, the wearable sensor device comes with a 9-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer for the detection of acceleration, deceleration, rotation, and orientation angles. They also feature Bluetooth low-energy interface to connect and transmit data from add-on sensors such as heart rate, sweat sensor, and more.
“Deutsche Telekom’s strategic investment in Kinexon strengthens the IoT partnership between our two companies, through which we offer manufacturing customers real-time location-based automation solutions. Deutsche Telekom’s 5G capabilities also pave the way for co-development opportunities between our two companies. We are excited to continue partnering with such an innovative company,” said Dennis Nikles, CEO of Deutsche Telekom IoT GmbH.
Article Topics
automation | Bluetooth | BMW | Deutsche Telekom | IoT | Kinexon | manufacturing | UWB | venture capital
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