Electronic components manufacturer Murata Manufacturing has led a series B round of undisclosed size for US-based autonomous building data management platform Locix that increased its overall funding to more than $20m.
Locix also identified conglomerate Sumitomo’s Sumitomo Corporation of Americas subsidiary, robotics technology maker iRobot, computing company Acer, electronic parts producer Yaskawa and NTT Docomo Ventures, a subsidiary of mobile network NTT Docomo, as investors but did not confirm their involvement in the round.
In addition to the corporates, ID Ventures, the VC fund spun out of Acer and now owned by fund and asset manager iD SoftCapital Group, and University of Tokyo Edge Capital, an investment vehicle for University of Tokyo, were also named as backers.
Locix is developing software that will apply analytics to spatial, visual and sensor data to add contextual awareness to domestic and commercial buildings. It will use the series B funding to strengthen development of the technology.
Norio Nakajima, senior executive vice-president of Murata’s module business unit, said: “We believe the combination of Locix visual sensor and its local positioning system will help customers streamline and improve their most critical and complex operations.
“Leading Locix’s series B financing shows our strong commitment to tackle those areas. We look forward to supporting Locix.”
The company has not revealed details of its earlier funding but regulatory filings indicate it secured $4.5m of a $6m series A round in 2015, and $6.6m of a $10m round as of May this year.