EcoMachines Ventures in $5 million investment in PointGrab, industry leading IoT company serving the building automation market
LONDON, UK (PRWEB UK) 15 December 2015 -- EcoMachines Ventures, the specialist investor in energy and industrial high-tech companies, has today announced its investment in PointGrab, an Israeli-based electronics company developing innovative hardware and software for the building automation ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) device market, in a total round of $5 million.
EcoMachines Ventures is investing alongside two other leading industry players including ABB Technology Ventures (ATV), the corporate venture capital arm of ABB Group based in Zurich. Saar Wilf, PointGrab’s Chairman and first investor, is also participating in this round. This collaborative investment will fuel PointGrab’s expansion into the rapidly growing $30 billion home and building automation market.
PointGrab is at the forefront of integrating embedded deep learning technology into optical sensing IoT devices and is now entering the rapidly growing building automation sector to develop the most advanced machine vision sensors commercially available. PointGrab develops products that provide detailed information on activity levels within buildings to support energy saving efficiencies, facilities management, occupancy comfort and safety, as well as business intelligence.
Dr. Ilian Iliev, CEO and founder of EcoMachines Ventures, commented:
“With an installed base of more than 27 million consumer electronic devices, PointGrab’s ability to scale up speaks volumes to me as an investor. The company provides a leading example of successful and scalable hardware/software integration in the growing IoT market, with a hugely scalable business model. PointGrab’s proven track record and ability to deliver commercial products to large and demanding customers is, in my view, a real proof point that the company is prepared to meet the large-scale demands of the vast building automation market.”
“ABB Technology Ventures (ATV) invests in potential game-changing technologies that demonstrate true differentiation from anything that currently exists,” said Dr. Kurt Kaltenegger, Group Vice President, and head of technology at ATV. “PointGrab stands apart on the leading edge of game-changing breakthroughs in making the use of energy, engineering and automation of buildings far more intelligent. ABB’s focus is on the next level strategy for the Internet of Things, Services, and People (IoTSP), and PointGrab’s technology opens brand new opportunities in the area of commercial and residential building automation leveraging an advanced IoTSP platform.”
“PointGrab integrates its well-established deep-learning and object-tracking IP into remote building automation devices, addressing rapidly growing markets such as HVAC and lighting control, security and access control, and intelligent real-life video analytics. The most aggressive demand for such products comes from energy savings and analytics, and the company’s product proposition attracts the interest of leading lighting, building automation, and energy services vendors, in Europe, US, Japan and China” said PointGrab Chief Business Officer Itamar Roth.
PointGrab is the seventh investment made by EcoMachines Ventures and sits firmly within the company’s investment focus covering the Energy, Transport, Smart City, Circular Economy and Industrial High-Tech sectors.
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About EcoMachines Ventures
EcoMachines Ventures is a London-based VC fund that makes seed and follow-on investments in innovative pan-European B2B hardware companies. We foster the development of world-class technology in the Energy, Transport, Circular Economy, Smart City and Industrial High-tech sectors. Working as a strategic partner alongside successful entrepreneurs and corporate partners, we help promising companies for the next stage of their growth. Learn more at http://www.ecomachinesventures.com
About PointGrab, Inc.
PointGrab is a leading machine learning and computer vision company that has applied its superior technology to win over 27,000,000 installations on devices from consumer electronics giants Samsung, Lenovo, Fujitsu, Acer and others. The company, which was founded by Saar Wilf, Haim Perski and Amir Kaplan, is supported by world leading engineering company ABB and sector expert EcoMachines Ventures of London, and applies a joint development and market approach with global leading lighting and engineering companies. http://www.pointgrab.com
About ABB Technology Ventures
ABB Technology Ventures (ATV) is the corporate venture capital arm of the ABB Group (NYSE: ABB). ABB is a leader in power and automation technologies. Headquartered in Zurich, with offices in Silicon Valley and Connecticut, ATV invests in high-potential, early-stage companies which have technologies of strategic interest to ABB. Investing since 2010, ATV has deployed over $150 million into a wide range of sectors including cyber security, robotics, smart grid, renewable power generation and data center efficiency. Learn more at abb.com/ventures.
The Building Automation Market
The global building automation and control systems market is expected to be worth just over $26 billion by 2019, according to BSRIA’s new World Market Intelligence (WMI) report: 2015 World Building Automation and Control System (BACS) study.
Ilian Iliev, EcoMachines Ventures, http://www.ecomachinesventures.com, +44 2037616138, [email protected]
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