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PointGrab announced a US$7 million strategic investment to support its advanced sensor technology for smart buildings. The investors include new partners - Philips Lighting, the global leader in lighting, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co. Ltd (MUCAP), a venture capital arm of MUFG, Japan's largest financial group, in addition to existing investors ABB Technology Ventures (ATV) and others.
PointGrab’s edge-analytics smart sensing solution, CogniPoint™, provides industry-leading occupant activity analytics to enable effective building space management and enhance buildings’ operational efficiency. By embedding state-of–the-art deep learning neural networks technology into cost-effective, miniature and connected optical sensing devices, PointGrab’s CogniPoint sensing solution provides unprecedented analytics precision in the detection of occupants’ locations, count, and movements. This technology improves energy efficiency, optimizes the use of space and improves safety and security.
“CogniPoint’s ultra-intelligent edge-analytics sensor technology will be a key facilitator for capturing critical data for building operations optimization, energy savings improvement and business intelligence, “said Itamar Roth, Chief Business Officer, PointGrab. “We welcome our new partners and value their significant contribution in fulfilling our strategy of enabling truly intelligent buildings.”
Jacques Letzelter, Global Segment Leader, Office & Industry, Philips Lighting, said: “PointGrab has developed truly industry-leading sensor technology. Being a strategic investor gives us a strong competitive edge at a time when our customers are demanding people counting for space optimization. Incorporating this functionality in our connected lighting systems will enable us to address a larger market and further capitalize on our position as the lighting company for the Internet of Things.”
“PointGrab’s CogniPoint solution complements ABB’s technology as a pioneer in building automation solutions,” says Dr. Kurt Kaltenegger, Group Vice President, Head of Technology, ABB Technology Ventures. “We expect this collaboration to bolster development efforts and expedite new product introduction.”
“Edge-computing like the CogniPoint solution is a new trend in the cloud computing era,” said Muneki Handa, President of MUCAP. “With this investment, the synergistic effects between PointGrab’s smart analytics solution and MUCAP will greatly benefit the Japanese market.”
PointGrab has installed CogniPoint smart sensors in numerous customer sites as part of ongoing collaboration projects. The CogniPoint solution will be available in early 2017.
For more information, visit http://www.pointgrab.com, www.abb.com, or http://www.newsroom.lighting.philips.com.
