California-based indoor data company Inpixon is to acquire German firm Nanotron Technologies, a specialist in IoT-based location awareness technology, for $8.7m.

The transaction is expected to increase Inpixon revenues by over $5m a year.

Nanotron, headquartered in Berlin, has established itself over the past two decades as a provider of IoT-based real-time location systems (RTLS) and indoor and outdoor positioning using both standard technologies, such as ultra-wideband (UWB), and patented proprietary wireless communication technologies, such as chirp spread spectrum (CSS).

Inpixon believes this acquisition is transformational for the company due to several factors, including that it will:

• Strengthen and expand Inpixon’s product portfolio and capabilities for UWB, RTLS and 2.4GHz CSS, increasing precision and decreasing latency to locate assets and people in real time.
• Expand Inpixon’s intellectual property portfolio, including patents covering its symmetrical double-sided two-way ranging (SDS-TWR) licensed by Decawave.
• Expand Inpixon’s user base. Nanotron cites that it has more than 500 deployments to date, including several large-scale deployments monitoring tens of thousands of anchors and tags.
• Deepen Inpixon’s geographic presence in regions outside of North America including Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East.
• Expand Inpixon’s partner relationships with marquee distribution and technology partners, such as Arrow Electronics, DigiKey and Decawave.
• Enhance the company’s ability to design proprietary sensor systems, including chips and multifunctional sensor systems for various industries.
• Broaden Inpixon’s industry coverage with construction, manufacturing, mining, autonomous vehicles and livestock, plus expand use cases including live positioning, asset tracking, collision avoidance, man-down and worker safety.

“Nanotron’s first-in-class products, patents and other assets significantly enhance our overall Indoor Intelligence platform,” said Nadir Ali, CEO of Inpixon. “Through this acquisition, we are adding one of the foremost engineering teams in the industry – a pioneer in the development of location-based technologies. Through the integration of technologies, we look forward to providing seamless integration across both indoor and outdoor positioning applications.”

Nanotron’s IoT sensors, tags, tag modules and software incorporate the following technologies and positioning methodologies: CSS used in radar applications for precise target locating based on time of arrival (ToA) estimation; symmetrical double-sided two-way ranging, a patented messaging platform that allows ranging between simple, low-cost transceiver devices; time of flight (ToF) ranging for physical distancing measurements for accurate zoning, secure access and virtual safety zone applications; and time difference of arrival (TDoA) RTLS for generating precise locations and providing scalable deployment options.

“Nanotron’s chirp technologies are unique and give Inpixon a formidable offering for tag tracking in the 2.4GHz ISM band, with accuracy to the one-metre level and up to 500m in range,” said Soumya Das, chief operating officer of Inpixon. “The 30cm accuracy offered by UWB is essential to helping our large enterprise and government customers address some particularly tough challenges. Additionally, Nanotron’s tag-to-tag communication methodologies can be incorporated into Inpixon’s workplace readiness solutions for advanced social distancing and contact tracing capabilities to help businesses reopen safely. We intend to leverage Nanotron’s established global customer base, as well as their extensive system integrator and reseller relationships, in order to expand our customer reach, as well as to provide significant cross-selling and up-selling opportunities.”

Inpixon will acquire 100% of the outstanding capital stock of Nanotron with cash on hand for an aggregate purchase price of $8.7m.