IoT automation and location analytics company Kinexon nabs $130M

Kinexon, a real-time location data and analytics platform used by industries such as manufacturing, logistics, and sports, has raised $130 million in a series A round of funding.

Founded out of Germany in 2012, Kinexon’s hardware and cloud-based software enables companies to capture data, and optimize and automate processes.

From an industrial IoT (internet of things) perspective, for example, Kinexon helps businesses such as Airbus, BMW, and Siemens know exactly where all the “things” are in their factories, how they’re performing, and then connects all this with existing systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools and warehouse management systems (WMS) to garner a holistic picture of everything that’s happening in a given location.

Armed with this data, companies can gain real-time insights into whether an essential material is running low on stock, where a particular product is in the packing and shipping process, and even help avert accidents by tracking forklift trucks’ proximity to humans.

The Kinexon platform pools data from an array of location technologies, from GPS, RFID, and UWB, to barcodes and beyond.

Beyond factories, Kinexon also works with companies in the sports industry including sports teams and broadcasters, to power player-tracking technology, monitor athlete’s performance, and more, using sensors worn by humans or embedded within a ball or puck.

Prior to now, Kinexon had raised around $18 million in seed and debt financing, and with its latest $130 million cash injection the company is well-financed to “accelerate the development of its automation technology,” and expand across North America and Europe.

“Our vision is of a world in perfect flow — wherever assets, people or operations are in motion, we can improve and automate the underlying processes,” Kinexon cofounder and co-CEO Dr. Oliver Trinchera said in a statement. “The investment round will provide us with growth capital to scale and further expand our leading operating system for process automation. We also plan to expand geographically to meet the growing needs of our customers across the world.”