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Rabu, 28 Juli 2021 09:04:00

IoT Pioneer Wiliot Secures $200 Million Investment Round Led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2

With Softbank's Vision Fund 2 backing, Wiliot will accelerate its mission to create a new era of IoT where intelligence and connectivity are brought to trillions of products that move through global supply chains - from crates, packaging, and pallets to clothes, medicine, and perishable goods.
SAN DIEGO, US - 27 July 2021 - Wiliot, the Sensing as a Service company and Internet of Things (IoT) technology leader whose self-powered, stamp-sized computer is changing the relationship between manufactures and their products, announced today it received $200 million in a Series C funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2[i] ("Softbank").
 
Wiliot has created a platform that is built on Wiliot IoT Pixels and the Wiliot Cloud. Wiliot IoT Pixels are tiny low-cost, self-powered tags that attach to any product or packaging to sense a range of physical and environment data that is then fed into the Wiliot Cloud, where machine learning algorithms translate data into actionable insights for businesses across a range of industries. The Wiliot Cloud also ensures data remains secure, private, and authentic.
 
For decades, there has remained a massive gap as trillions of products travel billions of miles without any data being available as to their status, whereabouts, or situation. Lacking this information, global supply chains have been profoundly, and vulnerably, in the dark. Recognizing this, many leaders in consumer-packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, furniture, and apparel have been working with Wiliot to add their sensing capabilities, intelligence and connectivity.
 
Effectively, products that were off-line during their manufacturing, shipping and consumption journeys are now online, a reality that is changing the way products are made, distributed, sold, used, reused, and recycled.
 
Wiliot-enabled products and packaging can sense temperature, fill level, motion, location changes, humidity, and proximity. Wiliot IoT Pixels can be integrated into vaccine vials, food packaging, and more, bringing real-time transparency to the supply chain, and the ability for brands for the first time to understand inventory levels throughout their retail channels. They can even understand how their products are used in customers' homes through a highly secure, privacy-protected platform.
 
This omniscient view of the supply chain built on people's usage allows a new paradigm called Demand Chain, which promises to slash the required capital that's non-productively tied up in inventories. Products will be able to self-reorder based on usage, accelerating the adoption of the "subscription economy" as brands transform their business models. 
 
Specifically for Taiwan, manufacturers have been searching for technologies that can help improve supply chain management for years. Coupled with the recent announcement made by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in April 2021 that Taiwan is actively working towards carbon neutrality by 2050, enterprises are in eager search of IoT solutions to enable the transformation. Meanwhile, the need to keep stock for vaccination needs also encourages surging demand from the medical sector. Upgrades on post-COVID supply chain management has become a crucial topic within Taiwan.
 
All this will provide consumers with increased convenience, fresher, safer food, less waste, lower medical costs and a lower environmental impact.
 
"Wiliot has created a vision of the future of AI-enabled IoT, and we are delighted that SoftBank is supporting us in making this future a reality," said Tal Tamir, Wiliot's CEO. "IoT is a vision created around Things and our mission at Wiliot is to use cutting edge hardware, AI based sensing and an innovative business model to implement a safer and more transparent world, a world in which all the things around us help consumers use them better and suppliers avoid waste."  
 
"By inventing the first hyper-scalable, self-powered computer that uses AI to sense the world, Wiliot is positioned to bring together the digital and physical" said Yanni Pipilis Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. "We have always believed that with IoT and AI, people will live better and healthier lives - where any food or medicine has the ability to understand if it's safe to use and communicate seamlessly with people. We are pleased to play a part in helping Wiliot dramatically scale the ever-expanding application of IoT globally."
                                                      
Softbank joins existing investors that include 83North, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), Avery Dennison, Grove Ventures, M Ventures, the corporate VC of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Maersk Growth, Norwest Venture Partners, NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures LLC, Samsung Venture Investment Corp., Vintage Investment Partners, and Verizon Ventures. As part of the investment, Amit Lubovsky, Investor for SoftBank Investment Advisers, will join Wiliot's Board of Directors.
 
Wiliot will use the latest round of capital to grow its team and scale its channels for the forthcoming launch of its V2 product, which offers next-generation performance that will help accelerate its vision for a new IoT.
 
[i] As of the date of this press release, SoftBank Group Corp. has made capital contributions to allow investments by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 ("SVF 2") in certain portfolio companies. The information included herein is made for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy limited partnership interests in any fund, including SVF 2. SVF 2 has yet to have an external close, and any potential third-party investors shall receive additional information related to any SVF 2 investments prior to closing.  (*).