France-based internet-of-things (IoT) technology provider Sigfox said on Friday it is set to close a €150m ($160m) series E round that features corporates Intel, Total, Air Liquide, Salesforce.com and Tamer Group.
Oil and gas company Total, conglomerate Tamer and Salesforce Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of cloud computing company Salesforce, are participating as new investors alongside Alto Invest, Swen Capital Partners and angel investor Henri Seydoux.
Aliad and Intel Capital, the venture capital arms of industrial gases provider Air Liquide and semiconductor producer Intel, returned for the round, as did fellow existing backers Idinvest Partners, IXO Private Equity, Elliott Capital Management and Bpifrance.
Founded in 2011, Sigfox has developed an international network that allows IoT devices to connect to the cloud in an affordable and energy-efficient manner.
More than 10 million devices are connected to Sigfox’s network across 26 countries, and the company intends to use the series E proceeds to expand its reach to a total of 60 countries by 2018.
Sigfox said it was seeking additional investors for the round, which is “shortly to reach the €150m level”. Reports last month suggested it was looking to raise between $100m and $200m in a round that would value it at about $600m.
The round follows about $150m of earlier funding, SigFox having secured $115m in series D funding from Air Liquide, Elliott, energy company Engie, satellite provider Eutelsat and telecommunications firms Telefónica, SK Telecom and NTT Docomo in February 2015 at a $400m valuation.
Intel Capital, IXO, Elaia Partners and Partech Ventures provided $12.8m for SigFox in a 2012 series B round before joining a $20.7m series C two years later that was also backed by Idinvest Partners and Bpifrance.
Patrick Pouyanné, Total’s chairman and CEO, said: “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.”
Lazard and Goldman Sachs are serving as financial advisors to Sigfox for the round. Skadden has been appointed legal advisor and Callisto as financial advisor to the management.