Belgian IoT Startup Pozyx Raises 1.3 Million Euro with Indoor UWB Positioning

Pozyx is a spin-off from Belgium’s prestigious Ghent University and is specialized in accurate indoor positioning for the internet of things (IoT). The company was founded in 2015 after a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. Since their launch, Pozyx has attracted more than 3000 customers in over 60 countries and has grown to a team of 15. Now, Pozyx has raised 1.3 million euros lead by the Belgian investement fund Saffelberg investements to further grow the company.

Founder Samuel Van de Velde: “In IoT you don’t only want to know when and what happened, you want to know where it happened, and indoor this is simply not possible with GPS. This is where Pozyx comes in.”

With the use of the emerging wireless technology called ultra-wideband (UWB), it becomes possible to achieve an unprecedented positioning accuracy of 10cm, several times more accurate than positioning with GPS, wifi or Bluetooth. The new Pozyx system is an important milestone for the company with respect to scalability. The new system allows to accurately track thousands of small, low-powered devices over very large areas. This enables a lot of new applications for tracking athletes, shopping carts, forklifts or even drones.

Last year, the system was rolled out for a select number of customers for tweaking and fine-tuning. Now it is ready for everyone. The largest setup to date is a complete warehouse installation covering 27000 sqm at an international beer brewer for tracking forklifts. With the system, the brewer can make more efficient use of its forklifts and manage its stock better. The investment in positioning technology was quickly earned back within 6 to 12 months.

With the new investment and the newly released product the ambitions for Pozyx are very high. Co-founder Vadim Vermeiren: ‘We want to be the first company to think of when talking about accurate indoor positioning.’According to Luc Osselaer from Saffelberg Investments is “Pozyx a company with a clear technology and value proposition for industrial and logistical companies. The team has proven to be at the cutting edge of positioning for the Internet of Things.”