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AKUA Is Bringing the IoT to Shipping Containers

AKUA says its platform has already been adopted for supply chain uses by numerous global companies in the agriculture, perishables, and high-value recyclables sectors.

Written By

Sue Walsh

May 16, 2017

The market for cargo tracking is massive and growing. Global fleet capacity is estimated at over 34.5 million twenty-foot equivalent unit TEU). Over 400,000,000 shipping containers pass through global ports each year. That equals five to 6 million containers crossing the sea at any given time, which has created a growing need and opportunity for advanced IoT solutions for cargo owners.

AKUA, a provider of business intelligence products for the shipping and logistics industry, is hoping to bring their IoT gateway platform to them as well. They’ve just completed a $3 million Series Seed funding round.

“We’re very excited about the funding round,” said AKUA founder and CEO, Neil Furukawa. “These investments will help us advance the development of our secure IoT gateway platform, create greater value for our customers, and accelerate the growth of our company logistics and supply chain market. We sell directly to the cargo owners where IoT sensors can improve their process efficiencies and greatly lower their losses and security risks.”

AKUA’s gateway platform is a Data as a Service (DaaS) model that can be integrated into existing business process systems and analytics platforms, the company stated. It is designed to directly serve the interests of cargo owners, providing them with real-time data on the condition, location and progress of their shipping containers. They can use their own analytics and data visualization tools or AKUA’s cloud based dashboard and mobile app. It also features a reusable high security master gateway device that insures the physical security of the containers.

AKUA says its solution has already proven itself a money-saver in the time-sensitive agricultural sector.

“AKUA successfully demonstrated how IoT devices can be utilized to improve the logistics efficiency and monitor the environmental conditions of our potato seed export shipments,” said Parkinson Seed Farm Owner Dirk Parkinson. “With our initiative to increase exports, we will now be able to analyze the data in real time and make real-time logistics decisions prior to shipments arriving at their destinations.”

Vasile Foca, managing partner of London-based VC firm Talis Capital, commented: “Within the vast IoT market, we identified a strong use-case for cargo tracking of high-value items, perishable goods and sensitive security goods by leveraging IoT. AKUA has highly advanced technology to provide much needed transparency and security for cargo owners.”