Posted on 4 September, 2015
Rotterdam, September 4, 2015 - Innovation Quarter is investing in the 'Smart City' company Munisense. This capital injection is expected to accelerate the growth ambitions of the Leiden-based company Munisense, both at home and abroad. This new funding also facilitates the development of intelligent sensor networks and the associated new cloud platform applications for 'smart cities'. The Representative of the Province of South Holland, Ms. Adri Bom-Lemstra, announced InnovationQuarter’s latest investment on the first day of the World Port Days.
Smart City technology supports smart cities
Smart is hot. Even in cities. New technologies are being deployed in so-called Smart Cities to make the city more efficient, safer and enjoyable. New digital applications support both the government and its citizens, and the quality of life, In particular, the provision of information, is enhanced in a Smart City. In an ideal Smart Cities concept, urban technology is utilized in order to make the lives of the inhabitants cheaper, more durable, and more efficient.
Munisense - pioneer in Smart Cities
Munisense is market leader in online and real-time monitoring of environmental parameters, such as noise, light, and water, and wants to expand this position throughout the Netherlands and internationally. Since 2008, Munisense has created, delivered and managed their innovative real-time and online measurement and control solutions for both companies and governments. These solutions give direct insight into noise and vibration loads, water levels, energy use, lighting, air quality, safety and traffic flow. The applications contribute to more effective, efficient, sustainable and smarter surroundings.
The Munisense solutions are fully optimized for remote monitoring, and allow access to the measurement data via the Internet. The technology consists of a sophisticated family of rapidly deployable small wireless energy-efficient and weatherproof sensory meters, which save their measurement data in the INSIGHTNOW™ cloud service platform. The INSIGHTNOW™ technology is based on international standards for wireless measurement, and integrates both the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT), Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), and M2M technology. This simplifies integration with other systems, but also makes online measurement very affordable. Munisense calls this “measuring the new way".
The new measurement, in practice
Munisense is collaborating with the Belgian city of Leuven to provide continuous measurement of the sound level in all 100 bars that are open in the evening hours. The system provided by Munisense helps the operator to remain within the confines of the noise control by-laws, while at the same time, the city can keep its finger on the pulse about situations that may threaten to get out of hand. In so doing, this innovative technology is able to both reduce noise nuisances, as well as hearing damage. A similar system is in use at Ahoy Rotterdam and at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam.
Dozens of municipalities and environmental services solution providers, in both Belgium and The Netherlands, use Munisense technology to get better control of noise problems in the streets, at events, in restaurants, and in construction activities in and around infrastructure. The Environmental Services of West Holland and Haaglanden now use this application.
Munisense’s partners also measure groundwater levels in real-time, making it possible to react effectively to environmental changes, and because of this, drying out, waterlogging and building damage are prevented. Some of the municipalities that are taking advantage of Munisense’s expertise in this technology include The Hague, Voorburg, Leidschendam, Rijswijk and Gouda.
In Amsterdam, Munisense records all ship movements in the canals. This information allows TNO (the Dutch national research organization) to combine it with Waternet to be used in a water navigation system. In this way, water traffic congestion becomes more transparent, and crowded water conditions can be visualized throughout the year.
In the city of Stockholm, there are more than 500 lights that are spread across the entire city, controlled during the winter, and monitored with the INSIGHTNOW™ cloud platform. The lighting adjusts itself to the ambient conditions, and reacts to the environment, such as traffic. Thus, the perception of light is increased, energy is saved, and power failures are detected immediately.
Reliability and safety first
The Munisense platform stands out in terms of reliability and security. Customers, such as local authorities, engineering companies, cities like Stockholm and Leuven, and companies like Intel and Siemens, are already using these platforms. Munisense provides its services through distribution partners in more than 100 cities. Munisense currently employs 15 people, and is expected to grow to approximately 30 employees.
New financing accelerates ambitions
Munisense founders George Boersma and Hans Mulder are very pleased with the investment: "This funding round comes at the right time, and enables Munisense to accelerate growth significantly, and in particular, to solidify our internationalization ambitions. In addition, a portion of the investment will be allocated to the Munisense Smart Cities portfolio in order to further expand, and to make the organization fit for accelerated growth. "
InnovationQuarter is proud to add Munisense, located in Leiden, as its newest portfolio company. "We are thrilled that Munisense, a company with such a broad product portfolio, and so beautifully positioned as an enabler of the ‘Smart City' technology, is strongly anchored to support the region in its international growth strategy," said Francis Quint, Head of InnovationQuarter Capital. "With its strong customer product offering in noise, lighting, and water measurements, and with an intelligent cloud platform to unlock the data, Munisense is the ideal partner for local authorities and businesses. The INSIGHTNOW™ cloud platform can easily support Munisense’s open data initiatives, and make new business models by Munisense in the Internet of Things market technically possible. "
Representative Adri Bom-Lemstra of the Province of South Holland stated: "Munisense is a company that not only innovates by developing existing technology wisely, but also has important national and international growth potential by coming up with smart solutions that contribute to improving the living environment in cities. These are the type of companies that South Holland must have. Innovation with clout will determine the future of our economy. For this reason, the Province of South Holland encourages SME innovation by making capital participation and subsidies available through InnovationQuarter, and by providing subsidies to top sector SMEs in South Holland. "
About InnovationQuarter
InnovationQuarter is the regional development agency for South Holland. InnovationQuarter finances innovative and fast-growing companies, assists foreign companies in establishing their businesses in West Holland, and organizes collaboration between innovative entrepreneurs, knowledge institutes and government. In this way, and in cooperation with the business community, InnovationQuarter supports the development of West Holland to become one of the most innovative regions in Europe.
The InnovationQuarter investment fund - which currently consists of Euro 58 million - offers venture capital to young technology companies and SMEs with growth plans in the region to bring new innovations to market. Through the fund, InnovationQuarter can raise the regional economy to a higher level.
InnovationQuarter is an initiative of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Province of South Holland, the Cities of Rotterdam, The Hague, Leiden, Delft, Dordrecht, and Westland, Delft University of Technology, Leiden University, the Leiden University Medical Center and Erasmus Medical Centre.