MENU



With its RF energy source the Bluetooth chip will have an infinite lifetime and include processing and sensors. As it will be available at a fraction of the price of traditional devices it will be an enabler of an IoT revolution, the company claims.

Wiliot has closed a $5 million funding round with Qualcomm Ventures and Merck Ventures BV (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), a subsidiary of chemicals company Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. This is in addition to $14 million funding provided by Grove Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, and 83North Venture Capital in January 2017, the month Wiliot was founded. In all, Wiliot has raised a total of $19m in its first 10 months as a semiconductor company.

The company plans to achieve hardware proof of its technology in 2H18 and deliver products to the market place early in 2019 to re-energize the Bluetooth beacon marketplace.

“This new technology will allow a sensor, radio, processor combination to be embedded in products, packaging, walls and furniture so that these things can be smarter and communicate with other Bluetooth devices, including smartphones,” said Tal Tamir, CEO and co-founder of Wiliot, in a statement. “We will enable everything to be intelligent and every place we go and anything we wear, touch or use will include sensing, connected, passive devices with an unlimited lifetime.”

Next: Investor comments


Boaz Peer, director of Qualcomm Ventures Israel, said: “As we look at the IoT space, we see battery-free Bluetooth technology as the next great leap, driving exponential growth for the entire IoT ecosystem, from smartphones and Wi-Fi hubs to battery powered beacons.”

“The quality and experience of the founding team at Wiliot, coupled with their passion to envision a more pervasive IoT, gives us the comfort that Wiliot will significantly change the game, particularly in the medical field, while expanding use and acceptance at a far larger scale,” said Edward Kliphuis, investment director new businesses at Merck Ventures.

Related links and articles:

www.wiliot.com

www.m-ventures.com

News articles:

Chips for energy harvesting is next billion-dollar market

RFID-based sensors as a data source for the IoT

Reused RF energy extends smartphone battery life by 30%

Using Wi-Fi to power IoT

If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :    eeNews on Google News

Share:

Linked Articles
10s