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Wiliot
Company typePrivate
IndustryTechnology[1]
Founded2017; 7 years ago (2017) in Israel[1]
Founders
  • Tal Tamir
  • Yaron Elboim
  • Alon Yehezkely
[2]
Headquarters
Caesarea
,
Israel
Area served
Worldwide
Products
  • IoT Pixel
  • Cloud
Number of employees
130 (2022)
Websitewiliot.com

Wiliot is a startup company developing Internet of Things technology for supply-chains and asset management,[3] founded in 2017 and based in Caesarea, Israel, with customer operations in San Diego, US.[1][4][5][6]

Wiliot develops battery-free printable sensor tags to monitor products like groceries, apparel and pharmaceuticals from their sources to stores and homes.[1][7] The company's business model is to sell the use of its cloud software.[8]

History

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Wiliot was founded in 2017 by Tal Tamir, Yaron Elboim, and Alon Yehezkely, following the sales of their previous startup Wilocity to Qualcomm in 2014.[2][5]

In 2019, Williot closed a $30 million series B round of funding from Amazon, Avery Dennison, Samsung and its previous series A investors Norwest Venture Partners, 83North Venture Capital, Grove Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and M Ventures.[9] Other early investors include PepsiCo, NTT Docomo Ventures, and Vintage Investment Partners.[5]

In 2021 Wiliot raised $200 million in a series C funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and backed by all previous investors.[5][10]

Technology

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Wiliot's tags, called IoT Pixels, are a postage stamp-sized printed computer that powers itself by harvesting the energy from surrounding Wi-Fi, cellular and Bluetooth radio signals.[5] The IoT Pixel tags have sensors for temperature, fill level, motion, location changes, humidity, and proximity.[10] The tags cost less than 10 cents a piece.[11]

The IoT Pixel includes an ARM Cortex-M0+ processor core, Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity, 1 kB of non-volatile memory, and antennas for Bluetooth and energy harvesting.[12] Dual-band models include connectivity in the ISM bands.[12]

In June 2022, Wiliot launched a business card-sized battery-assisted version of the IoT Pixel providing continuous connectivity.[13]

Data from the sensors is fed into a Wiliot Cloud server, where algorithms help its customers make decisions through a software as a service subscription.[5]

As of 2022, Wiliot is the assignee of 66 patents that relate to harvesting energy from very weak sources, running a computer element on tiny amounts of energy, producing a computer element in a thin, flexible form factor and the cloud services that enable sensing from such a system.[14]

Applications

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Wiliot's tags are designed for use in the many crates that agriculture shippers use to get their products to markets.[1] The tags can provide information about the safety of the journey and the condition of perishable goods, to better manage inventory and reduce waste.[10][5] Its first large public customer was Israeli supermarket chain Shufersal in June, 2022.[1][15]

The Japan Research Institute [jp] has experimented with reducing food loss throughout the food supply chain from producers to stores and in consumers’ homes by visualizing product information using Wiliot's tags.[7]

The company hopes to extend more broadly to sectors like pharmaceuticals and apparel[1] Their tags can sense when a consumable is nearing end of life, or when a non-perishable consumable is almost used up, or how many washings a garment has been given.[10]

Recognition

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The industry recognition received by Wiliot include:

  • Winner of the 2019 CableLabs Innovation Showcase[16]
  • Winner of the FDA’s Low- or No-Cost Food Traceability Challenge 2021[17]
  • Frost & Sullivan’s 2022 North American Battery-free Bluetooth Low Energy Tag Technology Innovation Leadership Award[18]
  • Frost & Sullivan's 2022 European Passive BLE-based IoT Solutions Customer Value Leadership Award[18]
  • 2022 SXSW Innovation Awards Finalist in the Smart Cities, Transportation & Delivery category[19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Liz Young (2022-06-08). "Israeli Tech Firm Rolls Out Tracking Devices the Size of Postage Stamps". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  2. ^ a b "Why Verizon Ventures invested in Wiliot". Verizon. 2020. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  3. ^ "Identiv Announces Innovative Collaboration with Wiliot on First to Market Battery Assisted Pixel Cold-Chain Solution". Identiv. 2022-05-18. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  4. ^ Christopher Mims (2022-10-29). "Why the Future of the Computer Is Everywhere, All the Time". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Mike Freeman (2021-07-27). "Internet of Things sensor startup Wiliot pulls in $200 million from SoftBank Vision Fund". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  6. ^ "Wiliot Featured on i24 News". i24NEWS. 2022-05-23. Retrieved 2022-07-25.
  7. ^ a b "IoTタグで「冷蔵庫の中身」を可視化、食品ロス削減目指す実証実験開始" [Visualize the"Contents of a Refrigerator" using IoT Tags, Demonstration Experiment to Reduce Food Loss Has Started] (in Japanese). ITmedia [jp]. 2022-01-12. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  8. ^ Brad Graves (2021-08-15). "Wiliot Series C Totals $200M". San Diego Business Journal. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  9. ^ Ingrid Lunden (2019-01-14). "Wiliot nabs $30M from Amazon, Avery Dennison, Samsung for a chip that runs on power from ambient radio frequencies". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  10. ^ a b c d John Koetsier (2021-07-27). "Softbank Leads $200M Investment Into Printable Battery-Free IoT Startup Wiliot". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  11. ^ Idan Ben Tovim (2021-08-02). "Like Apple's AirTag -- but battery free and the size of a stamp: Israeli innovation lands $200M". Geektime. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  12. ^ a b Gareth Halfacree (2022). "Wiliot Launches Its IoT Pixels Starter Kit, Aims to Kickstart the "Internet of Everyday Things"". Hackster.io. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  13. ^ "Wiliot launches breakthrough battery-assisted IoT Pixel tags". IoT Business News. 2022-06-02. Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  14. ^ "Patentguru: Wiliot Ltd". Patentguru. Retrieved 2022-07-04.
  15. ^ "Wiliot Featured on Israel's Prime Time TV". Channel 12 News. 2022-06-06. Keshet Media Group. Channel 12. Retrieved 2022-07-25.
  16. ^ "Wiliot". CableLabs. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  17. ^ "Meet the Winners of FDA's Low- or No-Cost Food Traceability Challenge". FDA. 2021-09-13. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  18. ^ a b "2022 BEST PRACTICES RECOGNITION - Wiliot". Frost & Sullivan. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  19. ^ "Announcing the 2022 SXSW Innovation Awards Finalists". SXSW. 20 January 2022. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
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