Amazon-backed Israeli startup Wiliot announced on July 27, 2021, that it had received $200 million in a Series C funding round led by SoftBank vision fund. By inventing the hyper-scalable, self-powered computer that uses AI to sense the world and work as tracking tags, the startup aims at changing the relationship between manufacturers and their products.
In a tweet, the company has mentioned that it has created a platform that is built on Wiliot IoT Pixels and the Wiliot Cloud. Wiliot IoT Pixels are tiny low-cost, self-powered tags that attach to any product or packaging to sense a range of physical and environmental data that is then fed into the Wiliot Cloud, where machine learning algorithms translate data into actionable insights for businesses across a range of industries.
AI for everyday things
“By inventing the first hyper-scalable, self-powered computer that uses AI to sense the world, Wiliot is positioned to bring together the digital and physical,” said Yanni Pipilis, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers.
“We have always believed that with IoT and AI, people will live better and healthier lives – where any food or medicine can understand if it’s safe to use and communicate seamlessly with people. We are pleased to play a part in helping Wiliot dramatically scale the ever-expanding application of IoT globally,” Pipilis added.
The Wiliot Cloud also ensures data remains secure, private, and authentic. For decades, there has remained a massive gap as trillions of products travel billions of miles without any available data regarding their status, whereabouts, or situation.
Lacking this information, global supply chains have been profoundly and vulnerably in the dark. Recognizing this, many leaders in consumer-packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, furniture, and apparel have been working with Wiliot to add their sensing capabilities, intelligence and connectivity.
“Wiliot has created a vision of the future of AI-enabled IoT, and we are delighted that SoftBank is supporting us in making this future a reality,” said Tal Tamir, Wiliot’s CEO.
IoT based tracking to disrupt the global supply chain
“IoT is a vision created around Things and our mission at Wiliot is to use cutting edge hardware, AI-based sensing and an innovative business model to implement a safer and more transparent world, a world in which all the things around us help consumers use them better and suppliers avoid waste.”
Effectively, products that were off-line during their manufacturing, shipping and consumption journeys are now online, a reality that is changing the way products are made, distributed, sold, used, reused, and recycled.
Wiliot-enabled products and packaging can sense temperature, fill level, motion, location changes, humidity, and proximity. Wiliot IoT Pixels can be integrated into vaccine vials, food packaging, and more, bringing real-time transparency to the supply chain and the ability for brands for the first time to understand inventory levels throughout their retail channels.
They can even understand how their products are used in customers’ homes through a highly secure, privacy-protected platform. This omniscient view of the supply chain built on people’s usage allows a new paradigm called Demand Chain, which promises to slash the required capital that’s non-productively tied up in inventories.
