NEWS: INTRANAV has been acquired by Inpixon, innovators of Indoor Intelligence for people, places and things. Visit www.inpixon.com to learn more.  |  READ ANNOUNCEMENT

NEWS: INTRANAV wurde von Inpixon übernommen, dem Innovator von Indoor Intelligence für Menschen, Orte und Dinge. Website besuchen.  |  MITTEILUNG LESEN

18.01.2022

[ Founder Story ]

Next Million-Dollar Exit in Germany:
US NASDAQ Company, Inpixon, Acquires
German Tech Startup INTRANAV

After seven years, German tech company INTRANAV, based in Frankfurt a.M. /Eschborn has been sold to the publicly-listed, US technology company, Inpixon (NASDAQ: INPX). With this acquisition, INTRANAV founders Ersan Günes and Gonzalo Ibarra have successfully joined the ranks of German exits over a million dollars like Fintus, Think-Cell, Adjust, Signavio, Agilion and Kaleido. This recent acquisition is another win for Germany’s IoT sector, which continues to make a significant impact on the global market.


How INTRANAV began

In 2014, Ersan Günes and Gonzalo Ibarra founded IntraNav GmbH (formerly Quantitec GmbH) in Hofheim am Taunus after studying electrical engineering together at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. They had the vision to optimize processes and workflows in production and logistics using intelligent sensors and networks. With minimal resources and a garage as their office, the two friends, aged 28 and 30, began expanding their team and developed the first prototype of their idea. As the first employees at INTRANAV, Julian Clemens and Deniz Caliskan provided significant support to their co-founders. Clemens is now Head of Hardware Development and Caliskan is a Head of IIoT Platform at the organization. Caliskan had also led the development of the first version of an innovative RTLS software platform INTRANAV.IO.


Once launched, INTRANAV’s mandate to track production lines and warehouses in real-time using low-cost micro indoor location sensors and to optimize the associated processes with the help of state-of-the-art software was well received by the industry. The founders, even back in 2014, were using technology similar to what is now used in the Apple AirTag, Samsung SmartTag and state-of-the-art smart car keys.
After INTRANAV won its first major customer order from Siemens in 2015, the founding team raised a total of 5.7 million euros in venture capital to accelerate its growth.


Four years later, INTRANAV was ready to go global – To help with this transition, Günes and Ibarra appointed Andreas Radix as it´s CEO, bringing in many years experience of setting up and developing business units around the world to the INTRANAV Team.


How INTRANAV Expanded its Customer and Partner Relationships

Today, INTRANAV counts industrial groups such as SAP, BMW, Siemens Energy, PERI and FESTO, as well as international conglomerates in the fields of agricultural and construction machinery, aerospace, intralogistics and manufacturing companies, among its customers and partners.

“We use INTRANAV’s solutions for indoor tracking of our transport racks for semi-finished products and have found that their solutions can help us solve problems in the manufacturing supply chain. We are now able to make timely predictions about the arrival time and quantity at the next work station. […].”

Stephan Schraml, Technology Center Manager, Lead Plant Scaffolding Günzburg,of the PERI plant in Günzburg


With INTRANAV’s Real-Time Track and Trace, the production status of connected warehouses and supplier processes can be tracked across the board as a digital twin. This helps companies make data-based decisions for their organizations. INTRANAV’s technology provides valuable real-time location data for process optimization and automation to streamline production processes as well as material supply and flow. As a result, entire workstreams that were previously performed manually, such as initiating processes or system updates, can be condensed and automated.


“We use INTRANAV solutions to manage powder tracking at the additive manufacturing facility in Finspang, Sweden. The INTRANAV RTLS solution has helped us significantly improve visibility into our powder handling processes on the shop floor.”

Robert Diener, Key Expert of Manufacturing Processes and Senior Project Management, Siemens Energy


More recently, IntraNav announced a collaboration partnership with German Edge Cloud (GEC) to offer real-time smart factory applications to a broader customer segment in the cloud. This collaboration is highly synergistic, because many German companies are looking for greater data protection and, above all, data security, which is provided with the help of INTRANAV’s hybrid cloud architecture. An additional advantage of INTRANAV’s hybrid cloud architecture is that it is cloud-agnostic, which gives customers the flexibility to choose the cloud provider that works best for their entire tech stack, while still getting the full functionality of INTRANAV’s software.


Longtime partners, such as MHP, a Porsche Company, with whom Ersan Günes has worked on cutting edge concepts such as the paperless factory and the control of autonomous vehicles, will be able to take advantage of the new synergies arising from the Inpixon acquisition for an even broader product portfolio:


“Together with INTRANAV, we have set up innovative PoCs in the automotive and consumer goods sectors. Currently, we are close to an implementation in the field of electronics. INTRANAV’s commitment to the projects is extremely high and enables very good results.“

Herr Dr. Julian Popp, MHP – Management and IT consulting company of Porsche


According to INTRANAV´s research with its customers, INTRANAV’s software has proven to be very valuable in process and supply chain optimization, especially after COVID-19, in its ability to identify supply chain issues ahead of time. Many chip manufacturers and their associated customers, such as automotive manufacturers, are still suffering from these supply bottlenecks caused by the pandemic, making the adoption of software like INTRANAV’s so vital and important to companies in these sectors.


New synergies and internationalization after acquisition by Inpixon

The INTRANAV team, including its leadership, will start the new year with a new chapter – as part of Inpixon.


Ersan Günes will continue as SVP of Product IIoT, Gonzalo Ibarra as VP of Delivery IIoT and Andreas Radix as EVP – of IIoT at Inpixon. Their team is excited to expand Inpixon’s robust portfolio with INTRANAV’s solutions and work with its leadership to further strengthen the growth of their IoT offerings.

“[…] INTRANAV joining Inpixon sounds compelling, and I look forward to exploring Inpixon’s location intelligence and app solutions for potential use on the enterprise side of our business.”

Stephan Schraml, Technology Center Manager, Lead Plant Scaffolding Günzburg,of the PERI plant in Günzburg


Inpixon’s portfolio includes electronic tracking solutions for real-time location systems (RTLS) and indoor/outdoor location solutions that incorporate both industry-standard technologies such as ultra-wideband (UWB) and proprietary implementations of long-range, low-power chirp spread spectrum (CSS) technologies. This step is a win-win for all of us. For us as management, it was especially important that first and foremost our employees could feel comfortable in the new structure and continue to enjoy their work.”

Ersan Günes, SVP Product – IIoT, INTRANAV, an Inpixon company


“Inpixon, just like us, has a flexible and open work culture that should not require many changes. For us, it is a significant step towards international market leadership within our field. We believe the chances of this happening are realistic with this strong corporate bond. Above all, however, our customers will benefit from the fact that we are now even more broadly positioned and can therefore offer more solutions and solve more customer challenges, all in a timely fashion.” 

Gonzalo Ibarra, VP Delivery – IIoT, INTRANAV, an Inpixon company


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