- The EUR 12m financing will be available to Kontakt.io to support the company's expansion in the growing indoor spatial intelligence market in healthcare, workspaces and other smart buildings
- The transaction is backed by the European Guarantee Fund
The European Investment Bank (EIB) signed the first agreement with Kontakt Micro-Location sp. z o.o. (Kontakt.io) - an indoor spatial intelligence company developing transformative digital building services that help people secure the space, equipment and support they need to be productive and safe. Kontakt.io’s solutions enable people to interact in a smarter, safer and more efficient way using the Internet of Things and AI cloud technology.
Kontakt.io’s R&D location in Krakow, Poland, an EU Cohesion region, will be the focus of AI research activities. The project will therefore contribute to better-balanced local development and digital cohesion in the region.
The financing of projects related to innovation, digital transformation and the development of human capital is a top priority for the EIB Group, which invested EUR 20.7 billion for this purpose in 2021. In Poland this support increased to EUR 1.5 billion (compared to EUR 1.2 billion in 2020).
EIB Vice-President Teresa Czerwinska said: “Financing projects which increase the level of digitalisation is one of EIB's top priorities. We are delighted to support an ambitious European player which implements pioneering connectivity solutions. Kontakt.io is one of the companies that shape the future. EIB’s investment will strengthen their competitiveness and market outreach, allowing a wider social benefit. I am thrilled that we can bolster Kontakt.io’s creativity and vision with EIB financing.’’
Kontakt.io CEO Philipp von Gilsa added: “disrupting ageing first generation indoor location markets with cloud powered, open standard IoT technologies, allowed Kontakt.io to become the fastest growing Cloud company in the indoor spatial intelligence market. Today, with the support of the EIB, Kontakt.io launches a new focus on the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to help reduce building carbon footprint, eliminate process waste and improve resilience of building digital services that impact quality and cost of clinical care in hospitals, the tenant experience in hybrid workspaces and much more. I am proud of the opportunity to bring the brilliance of our European engineering talent onto the world stage as we continue to innovate and expand Kontakt.io’s footprint in the market.”
Background information
The European Investment Bank (EIB) finances projects in four priority areas — infrastructure, innovation, climate and environment, and small and medium-sized companies (SMEs).
The European Guarantee Fund (EGF) was set up by the EIB Group with contributions from Poland and other EU Member States to shield companies suffering from the COVID-19 crisis. Using nearly €25 billion in guarantees, the EGF allows the EIB and the EIF to provide loans, guarantees, asset-backed securities, equity and other financial instruments available to mostly small and medium-sized enterprises. The EGF is part of the European Union’s recovery package aiming to provide a total of €540 billion to boost those parts of the EU economy that have been hit the worst.
In 2021, the EIB Group provided €6.5 billion in financing to projects in Poland.
Kontakt.io, is the industry leader in indoor environmental, location and occupancy services using Bluetooth® Low Energy (Bluetooth® LE). Initially founded in Krakow, Poland, today they operate with more than 100 employees based across the United States and Europe. Kontakt.io provides solutions to thousand of end users, delivered via 500+ partners using 3+ million IoT devices in the field. Solutions from Kontakt.io cover more than one billion sq feet and they continue to be a pioneer in the field, with a focus on Smart Buildings in Healthcare and Corporate Real Estate Spaces.
Kontakt.io’s mission is to deliver human-building interfaces that provide people with delightful, useful, and safe indoor experiences to help make buildings work for people. They want to define a new building DNA that is human-centric and build technologies that help transform buildings into indoor spaces that are useful for people in their daily journey to accomplish their goals, working or being cared for in a safe & sustainable indoor environment.