Actility, a French company recognised as one of the global leaders in low-power industrial IoT connectivity solutions, announces a funding round of €16 million.
This new financing will consolidate its leadership position in the global LPWAN (Low-Power Wide Area Networks) market as it enters a phase of accelerated growth.
“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 digitisation. AI cannot operate without data, and our technology anchors AI to the real world across numerous industries,” affirms Olivier Hersent, Founder and CEO of Actility.
An expanded commercial strategy for enterprises
This funding comes amid a strong market recovery for IoT and a strategic expansion of the company to serve the enterprise market. Founded 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.
Harnessing real-time field data, Actility unlocks AI’s full potential to foster more sustainable agricultural and industrial practices through increased agility, optimisation 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, and beyond.
Recognising the growing demand for robust, scalable IoT solutions, the company broadened its suite of offerings with the introduction of ThingPark Enterprise, catering to enterprise and private LoRaWAN deployments. This comprehensive, 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.
Leveraging on the strength of the ThingPark Enterprise platform for large scale industrial IoT, the company has developed a network of 100 resellers worldwide. As the IoT market matures, 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.
According to marketsandmarket.com, the IoT LoRa and LoRaWAN market is expected to reach $25.5 billion in 2028, up from $5.6 billion in 2023, with an average annual growth rate of 35.3%.
Actility sets the pace in the LPWAN market, connecting upwards of 4 million devices and overseeing ThingPark-operated LPWAN networks within excess of 40,000 base stations. 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 seamlessly integrates 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.
“LoRaWAN is the WiFi of IoT. Our potential market is very deep, with an estimated two 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,” emphasises Hersent.
This latest fundraise follows the company’s €70 million raise in 2017 with major telecom operators (Orange, KPN, Inmarsat, Foxconn, Swisscom), Venture Capital (Bpifrance, through its Ecotechnology 2 fund, as part of France 2030 initiatives, BNP Paribas, Ginko Ventures, Indinvest), and industrial players (Bosch, Cisco, Mulliez Creadev). 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.
Looking ahead, Actility is committed to leveraging this new funding to further its core mission: catalysing a more sustainable economy through the widespread adoption of IoT. By making IoT ubiquitous, Actility aims to digitise industries globally, fostering efficiency, safety, and environmental stewardship for our planet’s future.
Investor quotes
“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”, says Edouard Combette, Director of Investments at Bpifrance.
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