Actility – a French company recognized as a global leader in low-power industrial IoT connectivity solutions – announced today a funding round of $17.3 million. This new funding round will consolidate its leadership position in the global LPWAN (Low-Power Wide Area Networks) market as it enters an accelerated growth phase.
This funding round comes amid a strong market recovery for IoT and the company’s strategic expansion to serve the enterprise market. Launched in 2010 by a team of seasoned tech entrepreneurs, who played a pivotal role in transitioning voice communication to Internet-based technologies, Actility foresaw that the next tech revolution would be driven by massive IoT deployment.
Utilizing real-time field data, Actility unlocks AI’s full potential to foster more sustainable agricultural and industrial practices through increased agility, optimization of processes to reduce waste, and risk reduction and mitigation.
Olivier Hersent (CEO and co-inventor of LoRaWAN technology and a founding board member of the LoRa Alliance) initially positioned Actility as a primary partner for service providers rolling out industrial-scale LPWAN networks for uses like metering, smart lighting, logistics, etc. By recognizing the growing demand for robust, scalable IoT solutions, the company broadened its suite of offerings with the introduction of ThingPark Enterprise, tailored to enterprise and private LoRaWAN deployments. This comprehensive and multi-technology platform not only supports unlicensed radio networks such as LoRaWAN but is also at the forefront of emerging private cellular networks like CBRS. It seamlessly integrates field operations with cloud-based AI, ensuring data consistency and compatibility.
Utilizing the strength of the ThingPark Enterprise platform for large scale industrial IoT, the company has developed a network of 100 resellers worldwide. And with the IoT market maturing, Actility is positioning as a consolidator and has made strategic acquisitions, including Abeeway, the expert of indoor-outdoor multi-technology geolocation, and more recently Acklio for its SCHC technology which expands the applicability of the well-known IP protocol to the LPWAN domain.
Actility is setting the pace in the LPWAN market, connecting upwards of 4 million devices and overseeing ThingPark-operated LPWAN networks with in excess of 40,000 base stations. And with a year-over-year growth rate for enterprise networks exceeding 75%, Actility’s momentum is double that of the industry average, demonstrating its continued market share expansion and role in consolidating the IoT ecosystem.
The ThingPark platform integrates seamlessly across diverse sectors, enabling smart city innovations in energy, water, and waste management, enhancing industrial efficiency with equipment and fleet tracking, and advancing smart agriculture practices, worker safety, as well as healthcare through patient monitoring and elderly care.
This latest funding round follows the company’s €70 million raise in 2017 with major telecom operators (Orange, KPN, Inmarsat, Foxconn, Swisscom), Venture Capital (BPI, BNP Paribas, Ginko Ventures, Indinvest), and industrial players (Bosch, Cisco, Mulliez Creadev). And Actility used the funds to accelerate the development and deployment of its industrial IoT solutions, increase its R&D team and develop new roaming solutions and make key acquisitions to supercharge its growth.
Going forward, Actility is committed to leveraging this new funding to further its core mission: catalyzing a more sustainable economy through the widespread adoption of IoT. By making IoT more ubiquitous, Actility aims to digitize industries globally, fostering efficiency, safety, and environmental stewardship for our planet’s future.
KEY QUOTES:
“Due to its vast-reaching and industrial nature, the maturation of IoT technology took longer than anticipated. However, we have now entered a phase of steady growth, with enterprise adoption nearly doubling each year, propelled by widespread digitization. AI cannot operate without data, and our technology anchors AI to the real world across numerous industries.”
“LoRaWAN is the WiFi of IoT. Our potential market is very deep, with an estimated 2 million-plus private networks worldwide. Our distributors and partners have secured large accounts, including major players like Bouygues—one of Europe’s largest construction groups, the visionary Red Sea smart city project in Saudi Arabia, and energy sector giants such as PowerCo in New Zealand and Total in Europe. Most of these large accounts gradually deploy across multiple sites and for multiple use cases. More accounts, more sites, more use cases—this is the formula for our accelerated growth in the coming years.”
— Olivier HERSENT, founder and CEO of Actility
“Delighted to support Actility in this next step towards success, driven by accelerating growth in the IoT market and mature applications, both in the deployment of connected devices and in communication networks.”
— Edouard Combette, Director of Investments at Bpifrance
