Uhuru and SoftBank Establish Capital and Business Partnership in the Field of IoT

Uhuru’s IoT solution to connect with SoftBank’s IoT platform and network

Uhuru Corporation (“Uhuru”, headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President & CEO: Takashi Sonoda) and SoftBank Corp. (“SoftBank”, headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President & CEO: Ken Miyauchi) have entered into agreement for capital and business partnership in the IoT realm.

SoftBank has constructed an IoT platform that collects data from a wide variety of sensor devices and can be used in numerous ways to unlock the value of that data. With this platform, SoftBank is able to provide one-stop access to the essential elements for building an IoT environment: devices & network connectivity, data storage, applications and more. By entering into this capital and business partnership, SoftBank aims to strengthen its solutions and speed up technology development for the IoT business with Uhuru, which possesses abundant experience and know-how in the field of IoT.

Using enebular®, Uhuru’s tool that provides comprehensive development and operation service support for creating IoT products and services, Uhuru develops applications which connect clients’ IoT devices to the cloud, easily connect various different cloud services, and bring to reality optimized operation of autonomous, distributed, collaborative IoT systems with massive numbers of devices.

By means of this capital and business tie-up, Uhuru and SoftBank together will be providing IoT services created by combining Uhuru’s IoT solution and SoftBank’s IoT platform & network. Furthermore, the two companies plan to jointly develop a communication module for IoT devices that conforms to NB-IoT, the LTE standard released for commercial use by SoftBank in April 2018, with the goal of expanding the IoT business. In 2020, when 5G is expected to have advanced to become widespread on a worldwide scale, the global IoT market is expected to exceed 240 trillion yen(*1) (2.2 trillion US dollars). The collaboration will focus on accelerating solutions especially for facility management(*2), asset tracking(*3) and smart city.

*1 Source: Production Forecasts for the Global Electronics and Information Technology Industries (Press release by JEITA, December 19, 2017)
*2 Facility management: General term for maintenance and control of infrastructure used in factories and buildings, etc.
*3 Asset tracking: A method of tracking the locations of people and things using a combination of Wi-Fi & GPS, RFID tags, etc.

• The SoftBank name and logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of SoftBank Group Corp.’s operations in Japan and overseas.
• All names of companies, products and services mentioned in this release are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies.
• The descriptions, prices and specifications of products and services, contact points and other information are current as of the date of this announcement. Information may change without prior notice.

About enebular®

enebular is an IoT orchestration service provided by Uhuru.
enebular enables development of applications to link edge devices to the cloud, simplifying the task of connecting various cloud services and brings optimized operation of collaborative IoT systems with massive numbers of devices to reality. enebular is also equipped with security and scalability functions ready for commercial use. Since its release in 2014, numerous businesses seeking digital transformation with IoT and AI have adopted enebular. In May 2015 Uhuru has become a licensed partner with ARM Ltd. for use of Arm® Mbed™ Cloud, allowing Uhuru to conduct development related to cloud, edge devices, end devices, with an emphasis on security, particularly at the hardware level.

About Uhuru

Uhuru aims to deliver added value to clients and society with innovative products and services delivered via the internet based on our corporate philosophy “Create the future with technology and free imagination”. With IoT as our core business, Uhuru continues to bring transformative change to our customers’ businesses in the IoT realm using enebular, our IoT orchestration service that connects edge devices to the cloud. We are also working on next-generation telecommunications technology in preparation for the upcoming era of 5G. Uhuru strives to create new businesses for our clients with expert teams in a variety of disciplines, such as consulting, engineering and creative production, to provide one-stop access to the professional services in business strategy, technological support and communication strategy necessary to bring IoT to business.