Internet of Things startup Thinxtra receives $10 million investment to change the way we use data

Internet of things startup Thinxtra has raised $10 million from a government investment body, which will be used to extend the reach of its pioneering IoT network to 95% of Australia’s consumers with hopes of driving efficiency in the eHealth, smart cities, agriculture and consumer sectors.

The funding comes from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which manages the Australian government’s Clean Energy Innovation Fund, and will be used to develop Thinxtra’s IoT hardware which allows long-range transmission of data between connected devices, creating a nation-wide network that allows users to collect information remotely.

The hardware, which costs $2 and can run for 15 years on three AA batteries, has a myriad of applications across business, agriculture and energy sectors, and was designed to fill a vital gap that exists in the market.

“It all started when our CEO was working very closely with Telstra, and lost a $50 million deal not to the competition, but simply because the solution didn’t exist,” co-founder Renald Gallis says of his co-founder Loic Barancourt’s struggle.

“There was no solution for water monitoring technology which would be able to last 50 years on batteries, and cost less than $1 a year to connect to the network,” Gallis says. Read more

Angela Castles - Smart Company - 18 Aug 2017