LEA Partners invests in Quantitec real-time localization technology

Karls­ruhe, Germany — Quan­ti­tec, deve­lo­per of a real-time IoT sensor plat­form for end-to-end loca­tion of goods and inter­nal trans­por­ta­tion with centi­me­ter accu­racy, recei­ves €3.9 million in growth capi­tal. The finan­cing round is led and struc­tu­red by LEA Part­ners, other inves­tors are Vito Ventures with rene­wed parti­ci­pa­tion of Tengel­mann Ventures and some busi­ness angels. With the support of the new inves­tors, Quan­ti­tec intends to extend the market lead of its real-time end-to-end loca­liza­tion system (RTLS) in the field of produc­tion and logi­stics through person­nel rein­force­ment and further tech­ni­cal development.

Quan­ti­tec, based in Hofheim am Taunus, Germany, deve­lops leading hard­ware and soft­ware products for real-time object loca­tion in produc­tion and logi­stics. The inter­ac­tion of proprie­tary sensor systems and the powerful indus­trial IoT plat­form Intra­Nav results in a holi­stic system for compa­nies to locate objects in produc­tion and logi­stics envi­ron­ments inside and outside with centi­me­ter precis­ion in real time. By fusing a wide variety of sensor data and inte­gra­ting univer­sal data sources such as UWB, 5G, beacons, GPS or exis­ting ERP, EMS and WMS systems, the Intra­Nav plat­form offers solu­ti­ons to a wide range of problems.

The RTLS plat­form from Quan­ti­tec crea­tes the data basis for intel­li­gent indus­try and increa­ses process trans­pa­rency in produc­tion. With real-time data, compa­nies can make their proces­ses more effi­ci­ent and flexible.

For exam­ple, end-to-end data coll­ec­tion in chai­ned logi­stics proces­ses allows compa­nies to track goods across the supply chain, enab­ling them to iden­tify inef­fi­ci­en­cies and address them auto­ma­ti­cally. In addi­tion to a variety of use cases, even mixed fleets of auto­ma­ted guided vehic­les and clas­sic fork­lifts, for exam­ple, can now navi­gate to dyna­mic desti­na­ti­ons and auto­ma­ti­cally detect when people or other so-called “assets in motion” are in the vici­nity and react accor­din­gly. In addi­tion, Quan­ti­tec mana­ges to map indi­vi­dual use cases via the modu­lar expan­sion of its system and to deve­lop them toge­ther with the customer.

“Real-time busi­ness intel­li­gence and loca­tion intel­li­gence are key factors for the indus­try of the future,” empha­si­zes Bern­hard Janke (photo), Prin­ci­pal at LEA Part­ners. “With the Intra­Nav plat­form, Quan­ti­tec offers the highest inter­ope­ra­bi­lity with very low latency. Quan­ti­tec thus provi­des the back­bone for tomorrow’s production.”

Herbert Mange­sius of Vito Ventures comm­ents: “Quantitec’s tech­no­logy is proving to be far more perfor­mant and robust in an indus­trial envi­ron­ment than the compe­ti­tion. This has also been shown by a bench­mark from Micro­soft Rese­arch. With the asso­cia­ted soft­ware and intel­li­gent midd­le­ware for auto­no­mous vehic­les, custo­mers receive a holi­stic end-to-end solution.”

“We are curr­ently still focu­sing on the German-spea­king market, but we plan to roll out our offe­ring beyond that as early as the begin­ning of next year,” says Ersan Günes, co-foun­­der and CEO of Quan­ti­tec. “We want to become the market leader in the RTLS-based asset and produc­tion track­ing segment and imple­ment Intra­Nav in every digi­tal factory.”

Quan­ti­tec is plan­ning the next evolu­tio­nary stage of its Intra­Nav tech­no­logy for the middle of this year. The company is expan­ding its tech­no­logy port­fo­lio speci­fi­cally for auto­no­mous vehic­les and auto­ma­tion of the connec­ted factory. The product update brings new compre­hen­sive IoT analy­tics capa­bi­li­ties for auto­ma­ted guided vehic­les (AGVs) and alre­ady imple­ments future tech­no­lo­gies such as 5G.

This year, Quan­ti­tec takes first place for the second time among the “Top 10 Inno­va­tors of VW Logi­stic Inno­va­tion Scou­ting,” a world­wide inno­va­tion compe­ti­tion in which Volks­wa­gen Group Logi­stics, toge­ther with the Insti­tute for Produc­tion Manage­ment (IPM), annu­ally selects the most inno­va­tive suppli­ers in auto­mo­tive logistics.