Lithuanian Telemetry Start-up Attracts Investment, Announces Partnership

Ambient Sound Investments (ASI), established by the four founding engineers of Skype, now holds 30 percent of Connecty. Private equity firm InnoCap now owns 25 percent of the company, with the remainder distributed between Connecty's two co-founders and a private investor.

"Telemetry is about tracking and managing remote equipment," said Donatas Malinauskas, co-founder and CEO of Connecty. "In our case, it involves creating an invisible link between the real world and the virtual one, because this is where people often do needless work. We shouldn't have to waste time on reading water meters, checking ventilation systems or driving to a vending machine to see whether it is stocked. Connecty provides the technology to do this automatically."

Such technology saves time and lowers maintenance and breakdown recovery costs in virtually any industry, from logistics and transportation to utilities, agriculture and building administration.

Earlier this year, Connecty supplied a remote monitoring and control system to Vilniaus Vartai, Lithuania's largest real-estate development. The system includes over 900 meters that measure the consumption of heat and water while enabling easy analysis and breakdown management. Instead of having a person check the meters' readings manually, all data is remotely read by Connecty's remote monitoring and control system.

The newly announced investments will help Connecty develop new products and strengthen its position in the Lithuanian market. Tapping into ASI's existing investment portfolio, Connecty will also develop joint solutions with Oskando, an Estonian telematics company that makes vehicle tracking devices.

"Connecty has developed great software that can be tied to our hardware," said Indrek Hirvlaan, CEO of Oskando. "Together we can hide the complexity of how data moves around and devices interconnect. Our partners and customers across Europe will get an elegant solution that just works."

Connecty
Founded in early 2005 in Vilnius, Lithuania, Connecty provides remote monitoring and control solutions. These can be applied in any industry or sector that requires remote monitoring and control of objects, no matter what their size, type or location. Connecty has helped clients in a number of sectors, including utilities, building administation, logistics, and biotechnology. The company has five employees and expects to add several new staff in the near future.

Oskando

Founded in 1995, the Tallinn, Estonia-based Oskando is a telematics solutions provider whose product range includes GSM and GPS-based comfort, security and tracking devices for vehicles and small boats. Its products are sold in Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Norway, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France and Italy. The company employs 14 people.

Ambient Sound Investments

ASI is an investment group founded in 2003 by four Estonia-based founding engineers of Skype, the internet communication company. In March 2006, the group invested 1.6 million euros in Clifton, an Estonian start-up which plans to mass-produce heat-resistant low-cost semiconductor switches for the electronics industry. In April, ASI acquired a majority stake in Oskando, an Estonian telematics solutions provider. In May, the investment group purchased a minority stake in Modesat Communications, an Estonian developer of radio communications technology. Connecty is ASI’s fourth technology investment.

InnoCap
InnoCap is Baltic private equity firm which funds technology start-ups with global market potential in the Baltics, Scandinavia and the Balkan region. InnoCap recently closed an early-stage financing round with MobilCash, a mobile payment systems developer for global markets with headquarters in Denmark and United States. Entrepreneurs with ambition and bold ideas should contact InnoCap at info@innocap.eu

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