Uhuru Corporation Receives Funding for Business Expansion in the IoT

Uhuru Corporation (“Uhuru”, headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President & CEO: Takashi Sonoda) has completed a fundraising round through third party investors including NEC Corporation (headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President & CEO: Takashi Niino) and SoftBank Corp. (headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President & CEO: Ken Miyauchi), with participation from Salesforce Ventures.

Purpose of the Funding

The value of the global IoT market is estimated to exceed 240 trillion yen (*1) by 2020, when 5G will have rolled out across the world. Uhuru aims to expand its IoT business with special emphasis on facility management (*2), asset tracking (*3) and smart city projects.
Uhuru plans to utilize the recent funding for,

1. Facilitate enhancement of enebular®, Uhuru’s proprietary product for IoT orchestration services;
2. Hire and retain talent in specialized fields for product development and to create IoT business;
3. Marketing, development, sales and promotion of IoT solutions, and services based on enebular; and
4. Development of Proof of Concept for IoT services that solve regional issues and commercialization of the same.

*1 Source: Production Forecasts for the Global Electronics and Information Technology Industries (issued by JEITA)
*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.

About enebular

enebular is an IoT orchestration service provided by Uhuru.
enebular supports optimal operation of IoT systems on which vast numbers of devices work in collaboration, through simple and easy development of applications that connect edge devices and the cloud and connect with various cloud services. enebular is also equipped with features for security and scalability making it ready for commercial use. Since its release in 2014, numerous businesses seeking digital transformation with IoT and AI have adopted enebular. In May 2017 Uhuru became a licensed partner with ARM Ltd. for use of Arm® Mbed™ Cloud, allowing Uhuru to conduct development related to cloud, edge devices and end devices, with special emphasis on hardware security.

IoT Orchestration

IoT orchestration is a group of tools that allows easier development and feature updates of applications for IoT platforms on which edge devices and the cloud work in collaboration, connecting with various cloud services, and utilizing data. IoT orchestration differs substantially from IoT platforms.

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About Uhuru Corporation

With the corporate philosophy “Creating the future with technology and free thinking”, Uhuru aspires to bring added value to clients and society with innovative products and services based on the internet. Uhuru’s core business is IoT. We continue to transform our customers’ business in the IoT realm with enebular, our IoT orchestration service that connects edge devices and the cloud. We are also working on next-generation telecommunications technology in preparation for the upcoming era of 5G. Our teams of experts in consulting, engineering and creative production strive to create business at our clients by offer one-stop access to professional services in business strategy, technological support and communication strategy.

Salesforce Ventures

Salesforce is the fastest growing top five enterprise software company and the #1 CRM provider globally. Salesforce Ventures—the company’s corporate investment group—invests in the next generation of enterprise technology that extends the power of the Salesforce Customer Success Platform, helping companies connect with their customers in entirely new ways. Portfolio companies receive funding as well as access to the world’s largest cloud ecosystem and the guidance of Salesforce’s innovators and executives. With Salesforce Ventures, portfolio companies can also leverage Salesforce’s expertise in corporate philanthropy by joining Pledge 1% to make giving back part of their business model. Salesforce Ventures has invested in more than 275 enterprise cloud startups in 17 different countries since 2009. For more information, please visit www.salesforce.com/ventures.