Breed Reply Invests in METRON and TAG Sensors

• Leading investor in early-stage IoT businesses increases investment
  portfolio to 20 companies across Europe
• France-based METRON has developed a smart energy platform for use in
  industry and Norwegian company TAG Sensors is focused on real-time
  cold chain management

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#IoT—Breed
Reply, a leading active operational investor in early-stage Internet
of Things (IoT) businesses, has today announced investments in
France-based METRON
and TAG
Sensors, a Norwegian company.

The two companies raised a total of £3.75 million from Breed Reply and
other investors. These new investments mean Breed Reply’s pan-European
investment portfolio of early stage IoT businesses has increased to 20
in a variety of different sectors, including health, industrial IoT,
smart buildings and cities, and transportation.

METRON increases Breed Reply’s focus on industrial IoT technology.
Energy is a significant cost in many industries and METRON’s technology
provides industrial clients with an intelligent network that can better
manage energy usage.

The technology provides the virtual mapping of the energy used in
industrial processes and big data analytics to allow companies to be
predictive and proactive in energy efficiency. By using artificial
intelligence and control capabilities, METRON’s platform communicates
directly with energy markets and decentralized energy assets to optimise
operations in real-time according to context. Its customers include
leading manufacturing companies from a variety of energy-intensive
industries and METRON also partners with facility managers, utilities
and OEMs in Europe, Latin America and the Middle-East.

TAG Sensors platform also offers significant benefits to customers,
particularly in the pharmaceutical and food industries, including
McDonald’s, where temperature control of goods is vital to ensure
product quality. TAG Sensors has developed a market-leading technology
using radio-frequency identification (RFID). For the first time, it is
possible to have continuous real-time temperature logging of individual
products required to be kept at specific temperatures such as food and
vaccines. In the food industry, an estimated $813 billion is lost each
year globally from poor cold-chain management and the pharmaceutical
industry loses an estimated $12.5 billion per annum due to temperature
fluctuations of products in shipping and storage.

Both METRON and TAG Sensors meet Breed Reply’s investment criteria of
companies that combine strong management teams with an innovative
technology that solves a real-world problem.

As well as funding, Breed Reply will work closely with management to
accelerate both companies’ development to achieve Series A funding and
beyond. Last year, one-third of Breed Reply’s portfolio raised more than
$50 million of Series A funding.

The Breed Reply team has significant experience in scaling up
early-stage businesses, in-depth understanding of different markets,
proven track record in sales channel development and strong
technological DNA. They also work closely with Reply Group, a leading
consulting, systems integration and digital services company with a
market presence all over Europe and the USA to help the investee
companies commercialise their products.

Emanuele Angelidis, CEO of Breed Reply, said: “METRON and TAG
Sensors are fantastic additions to our investment portfolio. As well as
strong management, they have business ideas with long-term potential and
technologies that companies are looking for. There is a considerable
market for TAG Sensors low cost, versatile and highly-automated solution
to the problem of cold-chain management and METRON’s ability to deliver
improved energy efficiency to lower costs and meet ever stricter
environmental regulations is vital for a multitude of industries. We are
looking forward to supporting them to achieve their ambitions.”

Vincent Sciandra, CEO, METRON said: “This new funding will
support the international growth of METRON and increase our ability to
roll-out our highly successful energy intelligence platform. Over the
last five years, we have helped companies across a variety of industries
turn energy efficiency from a static, reactive process into a dynamic,
proactive strategy. We are reshaping the way energy data is used. It is
a strong endorsement of our technology and potential that Breed Reply
has backed us and we look forward to working with them.”

Knut Nygard, CEO, TAG Sensors, said: “There is increasing global
demand for our complete solution for cold chain management from leading
companies in both the pharmaceutical and food industries. Major brands
such as McDonald’s have tested and adopted our system in recent years
and this new funding will enable us to expand and make our system
available to more and more customers. The addition of Breed Reply as an
investor, with its expertise in helping IoT companies scale-up and
continued support of Platform Ventures will help us grow, invest more in
innovation and seek opportunities in other sensor-based market segments.”

-ENDS-

About Breed
Reply

Breed Reply, Reply's active operational investor, funds and supports the
development of early-stage companies in the Internet of Things (IoT) in
Europe and the USA. Based in London, with operational offices in Germany
and Italy, Breed Reply supports entrepreneurs and young talent by
quickly bringing new ideas to the market. This is done via three
fundamental services: funding at early-stage level; active operational
involvement with significant know how transfer of business, managerial
and technological expertise; and go-to-market support through the
extensive Reply network. Breed Reply’s focus is the Internet of Things
over all markets, with their current portfolio in Health, Fitness &
Wellness, Smart Building & Cities, Security, Industrial IoT, Big Data,
Platforms and Drones.www.breedreply.com

About METRON

Founded in 2013, METRON has developed an energy intelligence platform to
help industrial factories become energy transparent. By harnessing
multiple sources of data generated by industrial systems, METRON Energy
Virtual Assistant leverages latest machine learning capabilities and
dedicated knowledge bases to proactively identify energy savings
opportunities, connect to decentralised energy resources and turn energy
into a profit centre. The company has more than 40 experts, data
scientists and energy engineers, who help industrial clients in all
sectors to maximise value from their energy data and support them with
the implementation of energy efficiency optimisations.

About TAG
Sensors

TAG Sensors is a complete cold-chain logistics solution for the food and
pharmaceutical industries. It has developed the first low-cost, full
visibility solution that ensures and proves that temperature sensitive
foods and pharmaceutical products have been stored and transported
within the temperature limits.

TAG Sensors radio-frequency identification (RFID) temperature logger
label is the only one on the market that can effectively track
temperature and other variables of an individual package from production
to consumption, ensuring transparency, improving quality control and
minimising wastage due to improper handling.

Contacts

Redleaf Communications for Breed Reply
Robin Tozer / Ian
Silvera
+44 (0)20 3757 6865
[email protected]