Funding will allow the company to finance scale-up of its smart containers and rail freight businesses while extending operations worldwide, with focus on Asia
Marseille, France, July 17, 2019 - Traxens, expert in providing high-value data and services for the supply chain industry, today announces that it has closed a Series C funding round worth close to €20M ($22.7M), led by the Itochu Corporation, Bpifrance and Supernova Invest (Crédit Agricole Innovations et Territoires Fund).
This financing will enable the company to launch a global large-scale sea-land fleet of IoT tracking solutions on vessels operated by its partner shipping companies, including CMA CGM and MSC. Traxens expects to have 100,000 containers (both dry and reefer containers) equipped with its solution by end of 2020, making it one of the major players in the IoT for smart containers industry. This number is set to grow even higher after Traxens announced in June 2019 that Maersk will become a shareholder and customer with an initial order for up to 50,000 containers.
Traxens’ Internet-of-Things solution is based on a patented, breakthrough technology that enables access to the most comprehensive, precise and timely data for managing assets in transit anywhere in the world. This technology brings improved efficiency and security, greater transparency and enhanced asset utilization, while opening up new opportunities for shipping companies.
“This Series C funding round is a major milestone that consolidates our strategy and will enable us to deploy our solution at a significant scale in the coming years,” said Jacques Delort, managing director of Traxens. “The financing will help us to reach critical mass quickly as a data producer in a booming market. We will increase the visibility of the company in existing and new markets as well as that of our solution, while our first commercial partnership shows the great potential of our solution.”
“Traxens offers an innovative solution for the supply chain industry. We believe that the collaboration with Traxens will enable us to develop epoch-making products and services in the field of Big Data/IoT, which fits in perfectly with ITOCHU group’s growth strategy,” said Shunsuke Noda, ITOCHU Corporation’s CDO・CIO. “In addition to our investment, we are looking forward to our role as Traxens partner to grow the sales of its products and services in Asia, a region where sea-land traffic is booming.”
“We are delighted to make this investment in Traxens, a company we know well,” said Emmanuel Audouard, director at Bpifrance. “Our objective is to support ground-breaking innovations and we are convinced Traxens is very well positioned to become a global leader in the promising field of smart container management.”
“We are delighted to invest in Traxens, it benefits from outstanding commercialized products and services, and from unique partnerships with the largest shipping companies. We believe Traxens has what it takes to become a global leader in the smart container industry,” said Julien Cristiani, partner at Supernova Invest.
According to IDC, worldwide technology spending on the Internet of Things is set to reach $1.2T (€1.06T) in 2022, attaining a CAGR of 13.6% over the 2017-2022 forecast period.
Traxens already counts major BCOs among its customers, such as the world’s largest chemical manufacturer, BASF, and partners with major shipping lines to provide bespoke tracking data for containers. It recently launched a pilot IoT project in the Spanish port of Valencia with the objective of improving operational efficiency by using Traxens’ solutions to monitor container movement in the port.
Advisors
Bpifrance: Emmanuel Audouard, Muriel Prudent, Valentin Dubois, Ha-Jin Shin de BruchardItochu: Shunsuke Noda, Stephan LubranoSupernova Invest: Julien CristianiLegal Advisors - Traxens: Nova Partners – Loic PellegrinoLegal advisors - Bpifrance and Supernova Invest: Degroux Brugère – Jérémie SwiecznikLegal advisors - Itochu: Ashurst – Anne ReffayFinancial & fundraising advisors: MRFT & Co – Mathieu Rouget
About ITOCHU Corporation
ITOCHU is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and was founded in 1858 when its founder, Chubei Itoh, commenced linen trading operations. Since then, ITOCHU has evolved and grown over 150 years and is now one of the leading Sogo Shosha (general trading company). ITOCHU has approximately 110 bases in 63 countries and engages in domestic trading, import/export, and overseas trading of various products such as textiles, machinery, metals, minerals, energy, chemicals, food, general products, realty, information and communications technology, and finance, as well as business investment.
About Bpifrance
Bpifrance is the French national investment bank. It finances businesses at every stage of their development through loans, guarantees, equity investments and export insurances. Bpifrance also provides extra financial services (training, consultancy) to help entrepreneurs meet their challenges (innovation, export).
www.bpifrance.fr and presse.bpifrance.fr – Follow us on Twitter: @Bpifrance – @BpifrancePresse
About Supernova Invest
Supernova Invest is an independent venture capital firm that has strong relationships with the CEA, one of the world’s leading research organizations, and with Amundi, the largest asset manager in Europe. Investments focus on companies developing disruptive innovations operating in the life sciences, energy & environment, industrial, microelectronics and digital sectors. Today, Supernova Invest manages or advises five funds totaling €250 million ($284M) and has invested in more than 100 start ups since 1999. Supernova Invest is based in France.
https://supernovainvest.com/en/
