Yokogawa Takes Strategic Stake in Finnish Company Sensire Ltd. to Pursue Collaboration in Cold Chain Monitoring

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Yokogawa Electric Corporation (TOKYO:6841) and Finland-based Sensire Ltd. announce that they have reached an agreement for Yokogawa to take a €6 million stake in Sensire and to begin collaborating in the cold chain monitoring field. Through this initiative, both companies aim to develop and provide new services that combine Yokogawa’s Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) architecture, subscription-based IIoT services being developed by its amnimo Inc. subsidiary, and Sensire’s cold chain temperature monitoring solutions.

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Demand for solutions that facilitate the temperature-controlled transportation of perishable items from the point of origin to the point of consumption is on the rise, and this need is particularly acute with pharmaceutical and food products that require strict temperature control.

Sensire Ltd. offers a full range of specialized temperature monitoring solutions mainly for the cold chain. Sensire’s compact and power efficient temperature sensors collect and transmit temperature data to the cloud for access from PCs and mobile devices. Supporting a range of wireless communication protocols suitable for land, sea, and air transport applications, Sensire’s solutions ensure access to continuous real-time monitoring data that delivers vital quality and compliance information when and where it is needed.

Yokogawa is developing a cloud-based IIoT architecture in collaboration with Microsoft Corporation of the United States, and based on this is starting to provide solutions for the remote monitoring of physical quantities. In addition, Yokogawa’s amnimo Inc. business unit is developing IIoT services that use this architecture to provide access to data from not only manufacturing plants but also many other types of facilities and situations, with the aim of delivering subscription-based Measurement as a Service (MaaS).

Having taken a 35.2% stake in Sensire, Yokogawa is now this company’s largest shareholder. Utilizing Yokogawa’s know-how and global network, the two companies will work together to develop new temperature monitoring solutions for the cold chain and other logistics services, and expand this business.

Tsuyoshi Abe, a Yokogawa senior vice president and head of the company’s Marketing Headquarters, commented, “Under its Transformation 2020 mid-term business plan, Yokogawa is now exploring new business models such as recurring revenue while also aiming to expand its business in the pharmaceutical and food fields. I am convinced that Sensire’s solutions will accelerate these efforts, and I trust that we will be able to deliver new value to applications where precise temperature control is critical by combining the technologies of both companies.”

JP Asikainen, founder and CEO of Sensire, added, “I believe that this collaboration with Yokogawa will provide us an opportunity to expand the business globally and ensure the transition to the next-generation of cloud architecture. We look forward to making the latest and best cold chain solutions available to customers in a broader range of industries and applications.”

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amnimo Inc.

About Yokogawa
Founded in 1915, Yokogawa engages in broad-ranging activities in the areas of measurement, control, and information. The industrial automation business provides vital products, services, and solutions to a diverse range of process industries including oil, chemicals, natural gas, power, iron and steel, and pulp and paper. With the life innovation business, the company aims to radically improve productivity across the pharmaceutical and food industry value chains. The test & measurement, aviation, and other businesses continue to provide essential instruments and equipment with industry-leading precision and reliability. Yokogawa co-innovates with its customers through a global network of 113 companies spanning 60 countries, generating US$3.6 billion in sales in FY2018. For more information, please visit www.yokogawa.com.

About Sensire
Sensire Ltd., founded in 2007 by CEO JP Asikainen, offers comprehensive wireless and automatic real-time monitoring products that serve the globally vital climate-controlled chain. The IoT tech company’s solutions help deliver better safety and quality in various cold chain operations from food industry applications to pharmaceutical logistics, as well as in many climate-sensitive healthcare premises. Sensire is committed to being the leading innovator in cold chain IoT technology in order to offer best-in-class products and services to its customers. Headquartered in Joensuu, Finland, the company turnover in FY2018 was EUR 1.5 million. For more information, visit www.sensire.com

The names of corporations, organizations, products, services and logos herein are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Yokogawa Electric Corporation, Sensire Ltd., or their respective holders.

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