Showing posts with label INDUSTRY NEWS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label INDUSTRY NEWS. Show all posts

EIB and Alteia sign €15m for development in AI tech applied to visual data

December 07, 2021
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EIB and Alteia sign €15m for development in AI tech applied to visual data | Business“The EIB is pleased to be able to support the development of a company as promising as Alteia in the very high potential market of visual intelligence,” said EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle.



This loan aims to assist Alteia's growth by supporting its research and development and marketing investment for its artificial intelligence-led visual intelligence platform.



It is part of the EIB's strategy to strengthen innovation in the deep tech sector and the European Union's competitiveness in the strategic field of industrial artificial intelligence and data processing.



The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Toulouse-based startup Alteia, which specialises in the development of artificial intelligence software, have announced the signature of a €15 million financing agreement. The operation aims to enable Alteia to continue its development of technologies in the field of artificial intelligence applied to visual data (drones, satellites and ground-based sensors) and support the growth and visibility of its enterprise platform. This financing under the European Guarantee Fund aims to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and is split into two tranches.



Alteia is the visual intelligence platform for enterprise. It gives access to tools and services to develop artificial intelligence applications for processing and analysing images and videos in a much more efficient and cost-effective way than alternative approaches. Compared to its competitors, Alteia's platform approach offers very attractive development and deployment times.



Alteia's software solutions address a wide variety of industrial use cases such as predictive maintenance, safety, productivity management and equipment lifetime optimization via pre-built, customisable and high value-added artificial intelligence modules. The platform's functionalities can be adapted to the various sectors of activity that use its visual intelligence tools, including infrastructure management, agriculture, energy, civil engineering and construction.



Located in the heart of the Aerospace Valley in Toulouse, as well as in Paris and California, Alteia's development team includes specialists in computer vision, spatial image analysis and software engineering.



"Large companies are increasingly including artificial intelligence in their activities, recognising the need to combine this technology and expertise with their core business. These companies generally choose the platform-as-a-service model, which they can use to speed up the development, roll-out and industrialisation of artificial intelligence applications, while still guaranteeing business expertise," said Alteia CEO and co-founder Michael de Lagarde. "With its first successful large-scale deployments, Alteia has proven that it offers the most advanced and scalable solution for large companies to aggregate and integrate their visual data efficiently, also adding an artificial intelligence-driven analysis layer. This EIB financing will enable us to accelerate our activity against a backdrop of exponentially increasing demand, at a time when the digital transformation is becoming a major strategic challenge across all sectors of industry."
https://www.civilengineering.ai/eib-and-alteia-sign-e15m-for-development-in-ai-tech-applied-to-visual-data/

Smart Building Pioneer Brivo to Become Publicly Traded Company Through Merger With Crown PropTech Acquisitions

November 28, 2021
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Smart Building Pioneer Brivo to Become Publicly Traded Company Through Merger With Crown PropTech AcquisitionsThe leader in cloud-based access control and smart building technology with end-to-end solutions delivered through SaaS and connected devices



Serves one of the largest, most diversified global customer bases with more than 44,500 enterprise, commercial real estate and multifamily accounts and 23 million active users



Large and growing SaaS- and smart device-based total addressable market (TAM) for products and services currently in excess of $70 billion



Combined company to have an estimated enterprise value of $808 million, positioning it to further capitalize on the smart space market opportunity



Transaction to provide up to $304 million in cash proceeds, including a PIPE totaling $75 million led by Golub Capital Credit Opportunities, with a strategic investment in the PIPE from Eagle Eye Networks



Proceeds will be used to unlock growth by expanding the sales and marketing team, increasing customer acquisition, SaaS service expansion and product development



Expects to generate $417 million in revenue and $290 million in annual recurring revenue in 2025, representing 2021E to 2025E CAGRs of 55% and 70%, respectively



Investor call scheduled for November 10 at 8:00 a.m. ET



BETHESDA, Md. & NEW YORK, November 10, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Brivo, Inc., the global leader in cloud-based access control and smart building technologies, and Crown PropTech Acquisitions (NYSE:CPTK) ("Crown"), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement that will result in Brivo becoming a publicly listed company. The transaction values the company at a pro forma enterprise value of $808 million. Upon closing, the combined company will operate as Brivo, and its Class A common stock is expected to be listed under the ticker symbol "BRVS." This strategic business combination will enable Brivo to leverage Crown’s experience and relationships as an owner and operator of commercial real estate to accelerate market expansion.
https://www.civilengineering.ai/smart-building-pioneer-brivo-to-become-publicly-traded-company-through-merger-with-crown-proptech-acquisitions-2/

Scanalytics, Inc. Receives $1.3M Plus-Up Contract From US Department of Energy ARPA-E for Scaling Its Smart Building Technologies

November 27, 2021
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Scanalytics, Inc. Receives $1.3M Plus-Up Contract From US Department of Energy ARPA-E for Scaling Its Smart Building Technologies
Scanalytics, Inc. Receives $1.3M Plus-Up Contract From US Department of Energy ARPA-E for Scaling Its Smart Building TechnologiesThis plus-up contract will be used to expand next generation surface sensors for optimizing utility usage in buildings



MILWAUKEE, Nov. 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Scanalytics Inc. today announced that it received a plus-up contract from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) bringing the total amount awarded to just over $2.1 million since the start of the project. This continuation award will be used to further scale their proprietary sensor and software technology for improving utility usage and occupant comfort in buildings. Scanalytics is receiving this plus-up after successfully completing the first project in the ARPA-E SENSOR program.



"This will enable us to deliver sensor material and hardware innovations that match the maturity of our data platform. The additional investment by ARPA-E makes critical research and development possible as well as allows us to bring the new technology to market faster," said Joe Scanlin, Scanalytics Inc. Co-founder and CEO. "We need to redefine what it means for a building to be considered 'intelligent'. Our partnership with ARPA-E makes it possible for us to deliver a system that will help a building computationally consider the stochastic changes in their operating conditions, and adjust proactively to avoid the tradeoff between utility waste and occupant comfort. Our solution exploits the ubiquity of floor surfaces as the primary occupant-navigation method in buildings, which means we obviate the need for occupants to interact directly with the system. This advantage allows us to deliver precise occupancy while simultaneously preserving occupant privacy."



"This will enable us to deliver sensor material and hardware innovations that match the maturity of our data platform. The additional investment by ARPA-E makes critical research and development possible as well as allows us to bring the new technology to market faster," said Joe Scanlin, Scanalytics Inc. Co-founder and CEO



"The support we receive from ARPA-E allows us to focus on the occupancy-based energy efficiency use case and has allowed us to greatly improve our counting accuracy by iterating quickly and simultaneously on both the sensor hardware and the software algorithms. It's a great opportunity to continue this project with ARPA-E as we continue to innovate in this space," added Co-founder and Chief Scientist David Webber, Ph.D.



Scanalytics Inc. received its competitive award from ARPA-E's Saving Energy Nationwide in Structures with Occupancy Recognition (SENSOR) program. The program seeks to drastically improve the efficiency of businesses across the United States, as heating, ventilation and cooling consumes over one-third of the energy used by commercial and residential buildings.
https://www.civilengineering.ai/scanalytics-inc-receives-1-3m-plus-up-contract-from-us-department-of-energy-arpa-e-for-scaling-its-smart-building-technologies/

Cohesion Announces $15 Million Series A Financing to Advance the Commercial Real Estate Transformation to Data-Driven, Smart Buildings Amid a New Era of Hybrid Work

November 27, 2021
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Cohesion Announces $15 Million Series A Financing to Advance the Commercial Real Estate Transformation to Data-Driven, Smart Buildings Amid a New Era of Hybrid Work
Cohesion Announces $15 Million Series A Financing to Advance the Commercial Real Estate Transformation to Data-Driven, Smart Buildings Amid a New Era of Hybrid WorkCHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cohesion, a leader in smart building and digital twin SaaS technology, raised $15 million in its Series A financing round co-led by Morgan Stanley Next Level Fund and Hyde Park Angels (HPA), which closed Friday.



The company added several marquee names to an already noteworthy list of investors following a $5 million seed round last summer. New investors, Three Bridges Private Capital and Wintrust Ventures, join seed round investors Singapore-based Frasers Property Group, ESD, Ken Griffin, Citadel Founder and CEO, Michael Sacks of GCM Grosvenor, and Raj Gupta of ESD.



“We were pleased to co-lead Cohesion’s Series A with Next Level Fund’s inaugural investment,” said Alice Vilma, Co-Portfolio Manager, Morgan Stanley Next Level Fund. “With the support of our corporate partners, Microsoft, Hearst and Walmart, we aim to accelerate Cohesion’s API-first technology platform to disrupt commercial real estate operations.”



The company will use the funds for product and market expansion including its digital twin technology for optimizing building environment and health. Cohesion continues to create one of the world’s largest repositories of commercial real estate data, which it uses to establish industry operations benchmarks. Bringing this data to life through artificial intelligence and predictive modeling, the company will lead the industry transformation to autonomous buildings. It will also continue to focus on strategic channel growth, partnering with firms such as Morgan Stanley, Transwestern, The John Buck Company, and Riverside Investment & Development.



“Bringing the power and promise of autonomous technology to commercial real estate is more critical today than ever before,” said Thru Shivakumar, Co-Founder and CEO at Cohesion. “As a leader in this emerging space, we have the technological capability to connect disparate systems and use big data to make buildings more transparent, healthier, engaging and sustainable. Investing in technology that ensures commercial real estate is a positive contributor to our world is central to our company ethos.”



With tens of millions of square feet of commercial office space under its management, Cohesion is continuing to transform commercial real estate with smart technologies that improve the tenant experience, streamline operations and optimize revenue. Its patented platform combines the three main factors that impact building operations – the human aspect, building systems and environmental elements – into a single, multi-function management and data platform that simulates building operations to predict outcomes for the rapidly evolving industry.



“We believe there is a need for the solutions Cohesion is creating,” said Cohesion Board Member Steve Koch, HPA member and former Global Chair of M&A at Credit Suisse. “By connecting the things that matter – whether it is improving health through effective air quality management, supporting ESG and sustainability programs, or delivering insights – Cohesion is poised for success through its next generation technology.”
https://www.civilengineering.ai/cohesion-announces-15-million-series-a-financing-to-advance-the-commercial-real-estate-transformation-to-data-driven-smart-buildings-amid-a-new-era-of-hybrid-work/

Smart building startup Cohesion raises $15M

November 27, 2021
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Smart building startup Cohesion raises $15MBacked by Ken Griffin, Cohesion helps building managers bring tech upgrades to their spaces. A Chicago software firm that helps building managers bring tech upgrades to their spaces has raised more funding from big names as it looks to grow its product.



Cohesion announced Wednesday that it raised $15 million in new funding led by Morgan Stanley's Next Level Fund and Hyde Park Angels. Other backers include Citadel founder Ken Griffin, GCM Grosvenor CEO Michael Sacks and Environmental Systems Design chairman Raj Gupta.
https://www.civilengineering.ai/smart-building-startup-cohesion-raises-15m/

Hisense Plans to Acquire Siemens Intelligent Traffic Systems

November 26, 2021
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Hisense Plans to Acquire Siemens Intelligent Traffic Systems - PandailyChinese home appliance maker Hisense planned to invest nearly $1 billion to acquire Siemens’ Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS), 21st Century Business Herald reported on Wednesday. Hisense has not responded to the report.



In November, Siemens announced it was splitting its ITS division into a separate company. Subsequently, many media outlets reported that Siemens was planning to divest its the transportation business in 2021, which was expected to involve more than 40 countries and regions.



According to public information, Siemens Mobility has a history of more than 100 years. It offers intelligent and efficient mobility solutions for urban, intercity and freight transportation.



Siemens ITS, belonging to Siemens Mobility, mainly provides intelligent solutions for improving mobility on roads and in cities, with annual revenue exceeding 600 million euros ($678.8 million) and has been maintaining steady growth.



SEE ALSO: China’s High-Speed Rail and the Global Push for Green Transit



Zhang Sihai, President of Hisense TransTech, revealed earlier in an interview that Hisense’s intelligent transportation sector is also actively expanding overseas. The acquisition of Siemens ITS, therefore, will bring more opportunities for its overseas expansion.



According to data released by Chinese transportation inquiry platform 7its.com, Hisense ranked first in the total order scale of city-based smart transportation products from 2011 to 2020. At present, Hisense intelligent transportation products and solutions have been deployed in more than 169 cities throughout China.
https://www.civilengineering.ai/hisense-plans-to-acquire-siemens-intelligent-traffic-systems/

Traffic Technologies wins $5.7m contract, validating its technology within the Smart City segment

November 26, 2021
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Traffic Technologies wins $5.7m contract, validating its technology within the Smart City segment - StockheadTraffic Technologies’ contract win today further establishes its credentials in the multi-billion intelligent transport and Smart City sectors.



Provider of end-to-end traffic management, IoT and Smart City solutions, Traffic Technologies LTD (ASX:TTI) has just won a significant contract worth $5.7m from Coates, an Australian-based traffic control equipment rental company.



The deal was awarded to Intelligent Traffic Systems (iTS), a Brisbane-based business that was acquired by TTI earlier this year.



Under the sales contract with Coates, iTS will supply $5.7m of Intelligent Traffic Control equipment, consisting of electronic signs, radar equipment and associated software.



Delivery of the signs is expected to be completed by June 2022.



iTS’ Intelligent Traffic Control equipment can monitor, display and inform motorists of road hazards, construction zones and adverse conditions ahead, optimising traffic flows.



The technology effectively enables motorists to make informed decisions ahead of time in a timely manner, enabling smoother traffic flows on the road network.



“Such a significant contract is a further endorsement of the company’s expansion into the Smart City profile,” commented Traffic Technologies CEO, Con Liosatos.



“This was achieved through the important acquisition of the iTS business, and its Intelligent Traffic Control solutions.”



Long term contracts and solid balance sheet

In June this year, TTI acquired iTS, a business focused on the design and manufacture of electronic road signage and software systems.



That acquisition has today proven to enhance the company’s position in the intelligent transport sector.



This sector represents a value proposition for state road authorities and local councils in managing congested roads.



Today’s deal follows an announcement earlier this month of a capital raising to reduce TTI’s debt, and execute its growth and acquisition strategy.



Funds from the $10.13m rights issue are expected to reduce debt by more than 60%, and interest costs by 70% or $1.6m.



The fresh capital will also be used to execute its acquisition strategy to leverage its comprehensive traffic solutions, by continuing to expand and commercialise its SaaS platform.



TTI is positioned to be a big winner from the push towards Internet of Things (IoT), big data and digitisation in traffic technology.



In 2020, the global big data industry was worth about US$138.9 billion, and is expected to grow to about US$229.4 billion by 2025.



TTI recorded a solid FY21 performance with improvements across all key metrics, with revenue growing strongly (including recurring revenues, which account for 40% of the total), along with numerous long-term contracts signed.



MD of Traffic Technologies Con Liosatos will be hosting a love and online investor briefing tomorrow at 11am AEDT. Click here to register.
https://www.civilengineering.ai/traffic-technologies-wins-5-7m-contract-validating-its-technology-within-the-smart-city-segment/

Metro-North Railroad receives the APTA’s Commuter Rail Safety Award

November 26, 2021
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Metro-North Railroad receives the APTA’s Commuter Rail Safety AwardMetro-North Railroad has received the American Public Transportation Association’s 2021 Gold Award for Commuter Rail Safety for third time in six years.



MTA Metro-North Railroad has been the declared the winner of the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) 2021 Gold Award for Commuter Rail Safety for an innovative system that allows train dispatchers to ensure worker safety by de-energising tracks at the touch of a button, streamlining a process that formerly involved manually filling out paper forms.



Known as the Plate Order Protection System (POPS), the safety system was developed in-house by Metro-North’s Communications and Signals Team. POPS gives rail traffic controllers and power directors a computer-based option to set parameters for de-energising tracks within a work area from the Operations Control Centre in real time. A plate order is a request that is filled out to remove a track from service for electrical work. Under this new system, it is submitted by the power director and graphically displayed on the dispatcher’s screen, protecting employees working within a defined work zone and preventing misrouted trains from getting too close.



APTA announced its annual Safety, Security and COVID-19 Gold Awards and Certificates of Merit at its national conference of public transportation agencies in Orlando, Florida. Metro-North took the top prize in the commuter/inter-city railroad category for the third time in six years.
https://www.civilengineering.ai/metro-north-railroad-receives-the-aptas-commuter-rail-safety-award/
 
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