Growth equity firm Summit Partners has invested $40m in ProGlove, a Germany-based wearable technology developer that counts semiconductor and data technology producer Intel as an investor.
ProGlove provides wearable devices for use in the industrial space. Its lead product is a glove equipped with a hands-free scanner for use in manufacturing and logistics.
The device can also give direct signals to users to transmit any vital information and can connect to other systems using internet-of-things (IoT) technology. It was developed using Intel’s wearables development module, Edison.
Andreas Koenig, ProGlove’s CEO, said: “Organisations seeking to maintain a competitive edge in the era of industry 4.0 must rethink and reinvent the way in which humans and machines interact. Wearable devices acknowledge the importance of enabling a smarter, more effective worker in the industrial IoT environment.
“Industrial wearables define the future of assembly, production and logistics processes. Our smart wearables are designed to function as a natural extension of the workers’ tools, strengthening the role of the human in today’s automated world.”
Summit Partners principal Johannes Grefe has taken a board seat at ProGlove in conjunction with its investment, which increased the company’s funding to approximately $49m since it was founded in 2014.
Intel’s corporate venture capital unit, Intel Capital, led a $2.2m series A round for ProGlove in 2016, investing alongside Bayern Kapital and GettyLab, before all three joined Deutsche Invest Capital Partners (then known as DIVC) for a $6.7m round in April 2018.
Photo courtesy of ProGlove.
