France-based internet-of-things (IoT) technology provider Actility secured $75m yesterday in a series D round that featured a range of corporate investors.
The round included industrial product maker Robert Bosch, manufacturing services provider Foxconn, satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat and telecommunications firms Swisscom, KPN and Orange, the latter through its Orange Digital Ventures unit.
Private equity firms Creadev and Idinvest Partners, venture capital firm Ginko Ventures and French government-owned investment bank Bpifrance filled out the series D participants. The company expects to attract additional strategic investors to the round later this month.
Founded in 2010, Actility has developed a software platform that enables communication service providers, connected device makers and app developers to build, manage and monetise low power wide area networks for IoT.
Actility CEO Mike Mulica said: “This fundraising will enable us to grow our IoT technology and ecosystem platform faster to meet the needs of service providers, solution providers and enterprises in large industry verticals, for example rolling out our disruptive global location and tracking service more quickly.
“It will also allow us to accelerate our strategy for the US and build strength in China. And last but by no means least, it will enable us to look at strategic acquisitions to broaden our technology portfolio and cement our leadership in LPWA (low power wide area).”
KPN, Orange, Swisscom, Foxconn, Idinvest and Bpifrance had previously contributed to a $25m series C round for Actility in 2015 led by Ginko Ventures that included VC firm Truffle Capital.
Electranova Capital, the VC fund backed by energy utility EDF, had invested an undisclosed amount in the company in 2012.