Through its subsidiary HSB, Munich Re has acquired 100% of relayr, a leading provider of industrial internet of things (IIoT) solutions, at a valuation of $300 million. With combined forces, the companies plan to actively shape opportunities in the fast-growing IoT market.
Founded in 2013, relayr is an IIoT powerhouse delivering probably the most complete solution for risk-free digital transformations. While becoming part of Munich Re, relayr will continue to operate independently to maintain its distinct company culture, drive innovation and attract IoT talent. As part of the Munich Re/HSB network, relayr will benefit from the group’s financial strength, access to new prospects through the group’s large client base and financial engineering expertise that will help create new solutions.
Torsten Jeworrek, member of Munich Re’s management board stated: “IoT is already significantly changing our world and has the potential to disrupt the traditional insurance and reinsurance industry through new business models, services and competitors. I am truly happy to announce this acquisition, as it supports our strategy to combine our knowledge of risk, data analysis skills and financial strength with the technological expertise of relayr. This is our basis to develop new ideas for tomorrow’s commercial and industrial worlds.”
Relayr has partnered with HSB and Munich Re since 2016. With the acquisition, relayr will further strengthen its financial and insurance offerings while expanding through the group’s large client base and leveraging its domain expertise to further grow its business.
Greg Barats, President and CEO of HSB, and responsible for Munich Re’s IoT strategy, commented: “Back in 2016, HSB invested in relayr in an effort to harness the strategically significant business potential offered by IoT. relayr’s end-to-end IoT solutions for the industrial and commercial sectors are an ideal addition to our Group’s capabilities. relayr will help us to rapidly implement our global strategy to develop new IoT solutions for our clients. Digital transformation in the industrial and commercial sectors offers opportunities for new services and financial applications.”
From an initial consultation on the right technology through to overseeing implementation and supporting operations, relayr offers industrial companies seeking to digitalise their business a comprehensive range of services. For example, relayr has developed a platform which can be used by companies to connect new and legacy hardware and software to extract and analyse data from physical objects such as machines and equipment. This makes it possible to determine when a machine is likely to fail, for example, and conduct maintenance to ensure that this does not happen. With relayr’s IoT solutions, companies can obtain critical business data which can be used to improve processes and thus profitability. Costs can be cut, energy efficiency increased, and product quality improved, to name just a few. Since it began to cooperate with HSB, relayr’s offering has been supplemented by financial and insurance-related components.
The acquisition will put relayr in the position to evolve its innovative value stack, enabling new revenue models, cost reducion, and increased effectiveness across industries. Relayr will maintain its current focus on providing first-class IIoT technology solutions to deliver business outcomes to a growing customer base. Furthermore, the acquistion will also underpin relayr’s position as a long-term business partner.
Josef Brunner, the CEO of relayr stated: “We are delighted to strengthen our relationship with Munich Re/HSB to push digitalization in commercial and industrial markets and strive for our mission to help commercial and industrial businesses stay relevant. The unique combination of the companies demonstrates the importance to deliver business outcomes to customers and the need to combine first-class technology and its delivery with powerful financial and insurance offerings. This transaction is a great opportunity to build a global category leader.”
The first time we wrote about relayr was in 2014, when they raised a seed round to start the US expansion. In 2015 we mentioned them as one of the “5 German startups to look our for in 2015“. In the same year, Relayr won the CODE_n Award. An in 2017, Berlin-base relayr acquired the AI data security startup Neokami.
