Breed Reply Invests in METRON and TAG Sensors

Breed Reply, a leading active operational investor in early-stage Internet of Things (IoT) businesses, has today announced investments in France-based METRON and TAG Sensors, a Norwegian company.

The two companies raised a total of £3.75 million from Breed Reply and other investors. These new investments mean Breed Reply’s pan-European investment portfolio of early stage IoT businesses has increased to 20 in a variety of different sectors, including health, industrial IoT, smart buildings and cities, and transportation.

METRON increases Breed Reply’s focus on industrial IoT technology. Energy is a significant cost in many industries and METRON’s technology provides industrial clients with an intelligent network that can better manage energy usage.

The technology provides the virtual mapping of the energy used in industrial processes and big data analytics to allow companies to be predictive and proactive in energy efficiency. By using artificial intelligence and control capabilities, METRON’s platform communicates directly with energy markets and decentralized energy assets to optimise operations in real-time according to context. Its customers include leading manufacturing companies from a variety of energy-intensive industries and METRON also partners with facility managers, utilities and OEMs in Europe, Latin America and the Middle-East.

TAG Sensors platform also offers significant benefits to customers, particularly in the pharmaceutical and food industries, including McDonald’s, where temperature control of goods is vital to ensure product quality. TAG Sensors has developed a market-leading technology using radio-frequency identification (RFID). For the first time, it is possible to have continuous real-time temperature logging of individual products required to be kept at specific temperatures such as food and vaccines. In the food industry, an estimated $813 billion is lost each year globally from poor cold-chain management and the pharmaceutical industry loses an estimated $12.5 billion per annum due to temperature fluctuations of products in shipping and storage.

Both METRON and TAG Sensors meet Breed Reply’s investment criteria of companies that combine strong management teams with an innovative technology that solves a real-world problem.

As well as funding, Breed Reply will work closely with management to accelerate both companies’ development to achieve Series A funding and beyond. Last year, one-third of Breed Reply’s portfolio raised more than $50 million of Series A funding.

The Breed Reply team has significant experience in scaling up early-stage businesses, in-depth understanding of different markets, proven track record in sales channel development and strong technological DNA. They also work closely with Reply Group, a leading consulting, systems integration and digital services company with a market presence all over Europe and the USA to help the investee companies commercialise their products.

Emanuele Angelidis, CEO of Breed Reply, said: “METRON and TAG Sensors are fantastic additions to our investment portfolio. As well as strong management, they have business ideas with long-term potential and technologies that companies are looking for. There is a considerable market for TAG Sensors low cost, versatile and highly-automated solution to the problem of cold-chain management and METRON’s ability to deliver improved energy efficiency to lower costs and meet ever stricter environmental regulations is vital for a multitude of industries. We are looking forward to supporting them to achieve their ambitions.”

Vincent Sciandra, CEO, METRON said: “This new funding will support the international growth of METRON and increase our ability to roll-out our highly successful energy intelligence platform. Over the last five years, we have helped companies across a variety of industries turn energy efficiency from a static, reactive process into a dynamic, proactive strategy. We are reshaping the way energy data is used. It is a strong endorsement of our technology and potential that Breed Reply has backed us and we look forward to working with them.”

Knut Nygard, CEO, TAG Sensors, said: “There is increasing global demand for our complete solution for cold chain management from leading companies in both the pharmaceutical and food industries. Major brands such as McDonald’s have tested and adopted our system in recent years and this new funding will enable us to expand and make our system available to more and more customers. The addition of Breed Reply as an investor, with its expertise in helping IoT companies scale-up and continued support of Platform Ventures will help us grow, invest more in innovation and seek opportunities in other sensor-based market segments.”

-ENDS-

About Breed Reply

Breed Reply, Reply's active operational investor, funds and supports the development of early-stage companies in the Internet of Things (IoT) in Europe and the USA. Based in London, with operational offices in Germany and Italy, Breed Reply supports entrepreneurs and young talent by quickly bringing new ideas to the market. This is done via three fundamental services: funding at early-stage level; active operational involvement with significant know how transfer of business, managerial and technological expertise; and go-to-market support through the extensive Reply network. Breed Reply’s focus is the Internet of Things over all markets, with their current portfolio in Health, Fitness & Wellness, Smart Building & Cities, Security, Industrial IoT, Big Data, Platforms and Drones.www.breedreply.com

About METRON

Founded in 2013, METRON has developed an energy intelligence platform to help industrial factories become energy transparent. By harnessing multiple sources of data generated by industrial systems, METRON Energy Virtual Assistant leverages latest machine learning capabilities and dedicated knowledge bases to proactively identify energy savings opportunities, connect to decentralised energy resources and turn energy into a profit centre. The company has more than 40 experts, data scientists and energy engineers, who help industrial clients in all sectors to maximise value from their energy data and support them with the implementation of energy efficiency optimisations.

About TAG Sensors

TAG Sensors is a complete cold-chain logistics solution for the food and pharmaceutical industries. It has developed the first low-cost, full visibility solution that ensures and proves that temperature sensitive foods and pharmaceutical products have been stored and transported within the temperature limits.

TAG Sensors radio-frequency identification (RFID) temperature logger label is the only one on the market that can effectively track temperature and other variables of an individual package from production to consumption, ensuring transparency, improving quality control and minimising wastage due to improper handling.

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Contact information

Redleaf Communications for Breed Reply
Robin Tozer / Ian Silvera
+44 (0)20 3757 6865
breed@redleafpr.com