Unabiz, owner of the Sigfox technology, has announced $25 million of new capital funds from Japanese pair KDDI and KCCS (Kyocera) as part of early interest in a new series C (“pre-series C”) round, which is due to close in October. The Singapore-based company said its “transformation is complete” after rescuing Sigfox from bankruptcy and oblivion two years ago. With its operator partners, it has grown the business by four million connections (about 40 percent) in the period, it said, and is ready to push the new-look Sigfox proposition into the security, logistics, and utilities markets.
KDDI and KCCS are already heavily invested in Unabiz, which raised around $50 million in a series B round in 2022 and at least $10 million in a series A round in 2018. Reports last year suggested Unabiz had been on the lookout for $100 million in series C funding before the end of 2023 to resell its IoT device and airtime solutions in Japan. Unabiz was said to have had investors lined up already, and the new KDDI/KCCS injection is a consequence of its history with the pair, and also its new outreach.
The Japanese angle remains important. KCCS (Kyocera Communication Systems), the system integrator division of electronics firm Kyocera, and the national Sigfox network operator in Japan, said Unabiz is a “gateway for Japanese companies to export their IoT solutions globally”. Unabiz said its Sigfox business, branded Sigfox 0G, is now profitable (operating with a “healthy and profitable profit-and-loss statement”) following a post-acquisition “streamlining” and efficiency project, plus new revenue growth.
The four-million net additions in the past 24 months represent growth in connection volumes of about 40 percent since Unabiz took charge. It said it has a total of 13.5 million IoT endpoints on its networks now. Its global footprint, comprising a patchwork of third-party low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) infrastructure in unlicensed sub-GHz spectrum in 70-odd countries, is the “single largest unlicensed LPWAN network globally”, reckons Unabiz. Its renewed focus on security, logistics, and utilities comes from successes in each field, it said.
Notably, it said it has connected a million new IoT devices in the security industry in the last 12 months, and is investing with “major” automobile and motorbike manufacturers to scale Sigfox-based telemetry and anti-jamming solutions. Besides, it suggested that the addition of AI/ML trickery to Wi-Fi scanning software in Sigfox trackers will “deepen” sales to the supply-chain market, where it is targeting pallet and parcel handling companies, and that new hybrid IoT solutions, including LoRaWAN crossover devices, will help with gas and water metering sales.
Henri Bong, co-founder and chief executive at Unabiz, said: “Our transformation is complete. Since the acquisition of Sigfox… we have unleashed its full potential by opening up the tech, and unlocking fresh opportunities for IoT deployments and applications across the entire LPWAN ecosystem. Today, we are one of the largest aggregators of ‘massive IoT’ solutions globally, with 13.5 million devices connected, of which four were added in the last 24 months alone.”
Kazuhiko Chuman, general manager of KDDI’s ‘open innovation’ funding division, said: “Unabiz has been at the forefront of expanding the Sigfox… business, contributing significantly to the creation of an IoT business ecosystem. Today, [it] is an indispensable presence across various industries, earning the trust of numerous customers and partners domestically and internationally. Through our collaboration… KDDI will continue to drive further growth in the IoT market.”
Yoshiaki Nagai, deputy general manager for the ICT group at KCCS, said: “By acquiring Sigfox… Unabiz has become a gateway for Japanese companies to export their IoT solutions globally. We look forward to working closely with the team to expand our solutioning business around the world.”
Alexis Susset, chief technology officer and executive vice president of Unabiz in Japan and South Korea, said: “Japan has played a pivotal role in Unabiz’s growth thanks to a rapidly expanding ecosystem of partners and customers deploying and scaling solutions across key verticals…. Continued investment by KDDI and KCCS reinforces our commitment to advancing ‘massive IoT’ technologies and business models with our Japanese partners.”
