The Munich-based industrial Internet of Things startup ProGlove, which specializes in wearables for industry, today announced it has successfully closed a Series A funding round of $2.2 million. Intel Capital led the round with participation of GETTYLAB and Bayern Kapital.
ProGlove will use the funding to grow its team and launch its product later this year.
ProGlove develops smart gloves that enhance workers’ most important tools: their hands. Sensors and scanners embedded in the gloves enable manufacturing and logistics staff to work faster and more safely. The system alerts workers immediately to operational errors and allows the automatic recording of workflow and process compliance data. This data can be analyzed by business intelligence systems to increase enterprise efficiency and quality. ProGlove thereby enables a new level of business insight for both the modern enterprise and the human talent at its core.
ProGlove founder and CEO Thomas Kirchner stated: “Intel Capital has immense expertise in technology development. And because a huge part of the automotive industry, our core costumer, is based in Southern Germany, it was logical to partner with Munich-based Bayern Kapital. Lastly, GETTYLAB provides a bridge of advanced engineering know-how between the U.S. and Germany that we can take advantage of as we build our presence here at home and look to thoughtfully expand to the U.S. in due course.”
James Jackson, general manager of the Maker and Innovator Group at Intel Corporation said: “ProGlove’s enterprise solution has great potential to reduce physical work stress, improve ergonomics and reduce costly workplace mistakes – not only in the automotive sector, but throughout the manufacturing and logistics industries,”
“With its innovative technology, ProGlove closely meets Internet of Things’ performance requirements which are playing an increasingly vital role in various production processes. We see great prospects for ProGlove in a promising market segment,” sums up Georg Ried, Managing Director at Bayern Kapital.
ProGlove was founded in December 2014 after winning the Intel “Make It Wearable” Challenge with the goal to bring wearables in industry environment and make the worker ready for Industry 4.0.