Munich-based KINEXON has successfully raised $130 million in Series A led by Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P, a PE firm investing in growth companies. The other co-investors were BMW i Ventures and Telekom Innovation Pool (TIP), Deutsche Telekom’s strategic investment fund. KINEXON will use the fund to accelerate the development of its automation technology and to continue its expansion in North America and Europe.
Founded in 2012, the company offers cloud software which captures, optimizes and automates processes in manufacturing, logistics and sports. KINEXON operates under two core segments – KINEXON Industries and KINEXON Sports and Media, and its full IoT stack product portfolio combines software with any sensors and connected devices, creating an end-to-end solution for automation.
Companies like BMW, Continental, Siemens and Airbus uses KINEXON technology to improve their productivity and sustainability, while reduce manufacturing and logistics costs. In sports, the company’s automated real-time content generation enables the analysis of athletic performance and the enrichment of sports broadcasts with novel data.
Dr. Oliver Trinchera, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of KINEXON, said, “Our vision is of a world in perfect flow. Wherever assets, people or operations are in motion, we can improve and automate the underlying processes. The investment round will provide us with growth capital to scale and further expand our leading operating system for process automation. We also plan to expand geographically to meet the growing needs of our customers across the world.”
Michael Kaczmarek, Managing Director at THL, said, “KINEXON has defined a new category within IoT and orchestration software. Its cloud platform can gather localization data in real time and translate it simultaneously into powerful actions for customers. We are excited to support co-founders Oliver Trinchera and Alexander Hüttenbrink in scaling KINEXON and believe they have the vision and track record to define the future of automation technology in industry and sports.”
The PE firm THL invested in KINEXON through its Fund IX and Automation Fund, industry’s first PE fund dedicated to automation-related businesses. Michael and Jim Carlisle, MD and Head of THL’s Automation Fund, will join KINEXON’s Board of Directors alongside Michael Süß, Chairperson of the Oerlikon Board of Directors and former Member of the Siemens AG Managing Board, and Carl-Peter Forster, former member of the BMW Board of Management and former CEO of General Motors Europe and Tata Motors.
Milan Nedeljković, Board Member for Production at BMW AG said of the solution, which goes by the name IPS-i at BMW, “Automotive production at the BMW Group is a lot like top-flight sport in that it’s about high-performance processes. The real-time locating platform IPS-i forms the backbone for fully digitalizing our production. It’s an innovative operating system that makes our highly complex manufacturing processes transparent and raises efficiency in production even further. We are now intensifying our well-established, long-standing partnership with KINEXON by acquiring a stake in them. Together, we want to set new standards in digital production steering.”
Dennis Nikles, CEO of Deutsche Telekom IoT GmbH said, “Deutsche Telekom’s strategic investment in KINEXON strengthens the IoT partnership between our two companies, through which we offer manufacturing customers real-time location-based automation solutions. Deutsche Telekom’s 5G capabilities also pave the way for co-development opportunities between our two companies. We are excited to continue partnering with such an innovative company.”
