LABEGE, France – Nov.18, 2016 – Sigfox, the world’s leading provider of connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT), today announced it is closing its Series E funding round of €150 million to accelerate the expansion of its global network and soon reach worldwide coverage.
Alto Invest, Salesforce Ventures, Henri Seydoux, , Swen CP, Tamer Group and Total will join Sigfox as new investors. Existing shareholders including Bpifrance, Elliott, Intel Capital, Air Liquide, Idinvest Partners and IXO, will also re-invest in the company. Additional new investors are also expected to join this financing round shortly to reach the €150 million level.
The IoT space opens up new and exciting opportunities by connecting the physical world to the Internet. With its global network, Sigfox gives a voice to billions of objects, allowing them to play a pivotal role in our social and economic development.
In just five years, Sigfox has built a unique global wireless network that provides a simple, efficient connectivity solution, enabling devices to connect to the cloud at ultra low-cost and using minimal energy. No other network than Sigfox’s has a worldwide footprint and can claim to connect fully autonomous energy harvesting objects. Thanks to Sigfox, every object will connect to the cloud at minimal cost, by relying only on the surrounding energy sources. This promise, along with the significant developments made by the company over the past 18 months, have contributed to the successful closing of this round of funding.
With more than 10 million objects registered on its network and coverage currently spanning 26 countries, Sigfox is reinforcing its position as a global leader in the IoT space. This new round of funding will enable the company to expand its international network to 60 countries by 2018 and reach financial breakeven point.
The company sees Industry 4.0 as one of the main growth paths driving the development of the IoT. The need for predictive maintenance as well as the continued evolution of its business model towards more services could be some of the reasons behind Total’s decision to join other shareholders supporting Sigfox’s international development.
“We are happy to accompany the development of Sigfox because the technology it offers can be decisive to accelerate the deployment of the Internet of things. It is their advance acquired on the market in a short time and their capacity to accelerate the deployment of large-scale IoT solutions that motivated our investment”, commented Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Total. “This type of solution will improve the performance and operational safety of industrial activities, reduce operating costs, but also be used to serve customers “
Another key opportunity is the optimisation of industrial processes leveraging big data. For this reason, Sigfox plans to integrate with Salesforce’s IoT Cloud, unlocking insights from the connected world that empower any business to take the right action, for the right customer, at the right time across global consumer and business use cases. By connecting billions of objects and events, Sigfox and Salesforce IoT Cloud can facilitate deep and meaningful customer experiences via its global, homogenous and scalable network.
Intel Capital, Idinvest Partners and IXO PE, which are historical shareholders of Sigfox, actively participated in this round.
“We strongly believe that Sigfox has unlocked the IoT connectivity bottleneck and will bring billions of objects online in the near future. Its cost effective, easy to use, open platform solution is set to become the standard for low power object connectivity, bringing massive productivity gains to the corporate world and everyday benefits to end customers”, said Franck Tuil, Elliott’s Senior Portfolio Manager.
“I created Parrot 22 years ago, and I know how much it takes to carry out ambitious projects on a large scale. I am impressed by the huge progress made by Sigfox over the last three years I have spent as a member of Sigfox’s board of directors. I am now convinced of the colossal growth potential of the market Sigfox successfully addresses. Alongside the financial investment I am making today in the company, I am willing to provide Sigfox’s management with my support as an entrepreneur”, said Henri Seydoux, CEO of Parrot.
“The Internet of Things is one of the next big transformational technologies, and we are proud to support Sigfox as the infrastructure leader. We are pleased to see a strong startup ecosystem being built around this world-class technology.”, said Paul François Fournier, Executive Director of Bpifrance.
Commenting on the announcement, Xavier Drilhon, deputy CEO of Sigfox said, “I joined Sigfox 18 months ago because of the incredibly powerful vision of its founders and the unique positioning of the company as a fundamental enabler of the IoT revolution. Our rapid international expansion made possible thanks to the support of our local operators, as well as the growth of our ecosystem, were key to securing this new fundraising. This will allow the company to accelerate the deployment of its network from 26 countries today to over 60 within the next two years, representing 90 per cent of the worldwide GDP.”
“When we met in 2010, we agreed that Sigfox could change the world by bringing the virtual and physical worlds together through a new paradigm based on the fundamental principles of astrophysics. Today, we have created the equivalent of the world’s largest radio telescope for IoT. Our network is able to connect hundreds of billions of objects to the Internet through advanced radio techniques.” said Ludovic Le Moan and Christophe Fourtet, co-founders of Sigfox.
The round comprises a “greenshoe” that will allow new strategic and financial partners to join the share capital of Sigfox shortly.
Lazard and Goldman Sachs acted as financial advisors to Sigfox, with Skadden acting as legal advisor and Callisto acting as financial advisors to the management.
About Sigfox
Sigfox is the world’s leading provider of connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT). The company has built a global network to connect billions of devices to the Internet while consuming as little energy as possible, as simply as possible.
Sigfox’s unique approach to device-to-cloud communications addresses the three greatest barriers to global IoT adoption: cost, energy consumption, and global scalability. Today, the network is present in 26 countries and on track to cover 60 by 2018 – covering a population of 397 million people. With millions of objects connected and a rapidly growing partner ecosystem, Sigfox empowers companies to create new innovations on the IoT. Founded in 2010 by Ludovic Le Moan and Christophe Fourtet, the company is headquartered in Labège near Toulouse, France’s “IoT Valley”. Sigfox also has offices in Paris, Madrid, Munich, Boston, San Francisco, Dubai and Singapore.
For more information, see www.sigfox.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube
About Total Energy Ventures
Total Energy Ventures is Total’s venture capital arm for investing in energy start-ups. Its investments support the development of innovative businesses in areas such as renewable energies, energy efficiency, energy storage, digital energy and sustainable transportation
About ALIAD
Created in 2013, Air Liquide Venture Capital, ALIAD, is the Air Liquide Group’s venture capital investor. ALIAD’s role is to take minority stakes in innovative technology start-ups. Thanks to its customer knowledge and its industrial and technological expertise, ALIAD supports the growth of innovative startups for the future of technologies. Its involvement is illustrated by R&D and business privileged agreements between the startups and the Group’s other entities.
For more information, see www.airliquide.com/connected-innovation/aliad-venture-capital
About Alto Invest
Alto Invest is a capital management company investing primarily in small and mid-sized fast-growing companies. Alto Invest’s team is highly experienced in managing private equity portfolios on behalf of institutional and private clients, and it made more than 90 private equity investments in Europe. Alto Invest is fully approved by the French financial authorities (Autorité des Marchés Financiers) and is an active member of the French Asset Management Association (Association Française de la Gestion Financière).
For more information, see www.altoinvest.fr
About Bpifrance
Equity investment are operated by Bpifrance Investissement. Bpifrance, a subsidiary of the French state and the Caisse des Dépôts and the entrepreneurs’ trusted partner, finances businesses from the seed phase to IPO, through loans, guarantees and equity investments. Bpifrance also provides operational services and strong support for innovation, export, and external growth in partnership with Business France and Coface. Bpifrance offers to businesses a large range of financing opportunities at each key step of their development, including offers adapted to regional specificities. With its 47 regional offices (90% of decisions are made locally) Bpifrance represents a strategic tool for economic competitiveness dedicated to entrepreneurs. Bpifrance acts as a back-up for initiatives driven by the French State and the Regions to tackle 3 goals:
- Contributing to SME’s growth
- Preparing tomorrow’s competitiveness
- Contributing to the development of a positive entrepreneur ecosystem
With Bpifrance, businesses benefit from a powerful, efficient and close representative, to answer all their needs in terms of financing, innovation and investment.
For more information, see www.bpifrance.fr and follow us on Twitter @bpifrance.
About Elliott Management Corporation
Elliott Management Corporation is an investment firm founded in 1977 that today manages approximately $29 billion of capital for both institutional and individual investors. Elliott is a multi-strategy firm with offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Menlo Park active in debt, equities, commodities, currencies and various other asset classes across a range of industries. The firm’s principal objective is to generate a return which is as high as is consistent with a goal of minimizing losses during adverse financial market periods.
For more information, see www.elliottmgmt.com.
About Idinvest Partners
With more than €7 billion under management and 80 people, Idinvest Partners is a leading pan-European manager focused on the middle market segment. Idinvest Partners has developed several complementary areas of expertise including investments in innovative European start-ups, primary, secondary and mezzanine investments in European non-listed companies, and private equity consulting. Founded under the name AGF Private Equity in 1997, Idinvest Partners was formerly part of the Allianz group until 2010 when it became independent.
For more information, see www.idinvest.com.
About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel’s strategic investment and M&A organization, backs innovative startups targeting computing and smart devices, cloud, datacenter, security, the Internet of Things, wearable and robotic technologies and semiconductor manufacturing. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested US$11.8 billion in 1,470 companies worldwide, and 617 portfolio companies have gone public or been acquired. Through its business development programs, Intel Capital curates thousands of introductions each year between its portfolio executives and Intel’s customers and partners in the Global 2000. For more information on what makes Intel Capital one of the world’s most powerful venture capital firms, visit www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.
About IXO Private Equity
IXO Private Equity is an independent company 100 % held by its management team. It manages an asset portfolio in capital-investment of €570m. Funds made out from type FIP/FCPI’s public offer represent €220m. FPCI’s funds (ex FCPR) mainly signed by institutional investors represent, as for them, €350m. Located in Toulouse, Marseille and Lyon, IXO Private Equity invests equity amounts between €1m and €15m per project in PME located in the South of France (South-East – South-West).
For more information, see www.ixope.fr
About Salesforce Ventures
Salesforce Ventures—Salesforce’s corporate investment group—invests in the next generation of enterprise technology to help companies connect with their customers in entirely new ways. Portfolio companies receive funding as well as access to the world’s largest cloud ecosystem and the guidance of Salesforce’s innovators and executives. With Salesforce Ventures, portfolio companies can also leverage the expertise of the Salesforce Foundation to incorporate its 1-1-1 model of integrated philanthropy to make giving back part of their business model. Salesforce has invested in more than 150 enterprise cloud startups since 2009.
For more information, see www.salesforce.com/ventures
About Swen Capital Partners
Swen Capital Partners is an investment management company specialized in private equity, private infrastructure and private debt. With €3.2Bn under management, Swen Capital Partners provides:
- a full range of investment programs for personal customers and institutions;
- a real expertize to follow-up and monitor portfolios.
Swen Capital Partners is OFI’s and Arkéa Investment Services’ subsidiary.
For more information, see www.swen-cp.fr
About Tamer Group
Tamer Group is a leading healthcare, beauty care, prestige products, and fast moving consumer goods company responding to the growing needs of the Saudi and Middle East communities. The Group’s core activities are import, distribution, promotion, marketing and manufacturing.
Today, Tamer Group has established a special position in the Saudi marketplace, resulting from a unique approach to business, service and customer portfolio.
Headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Tamer Group serves many of the world’s leading companies through various agreements, partnerships, and joint ventures.
For more information, see www.tamergroup.com
