Crosser raises €3 million to further advance its low-code streaming analytics platform for Industrial IoT

Crosser, the leading low-code platform for Streaming Analytics, Automation and Integration for Industrial IoT, today announced its latest funding round of €3 million in new capital. The round was led by NTT DOCOMO Ventures and Montan-Ventures-Saar with existing investors Industrifonden, Spintop Ventures, 42 Cap, Almi Invest and Norrlandsfonden also participating.

Gartner reports that low-code technologies will remain on a strong trajectory for 2021 and beyond as it enables companies to rapidly build and deploy use cases without the use of professional programmers.

“The complexity of Industrial IoT makes the skills barrier higher than in most other enterprise verticals. We like to argue that the value of low-code platforms is hence even higher for industrial companies” says Martin Thunman, CEO and co-founder of Crosser. “With this financing round we aim to bring more innovative low-code solutions to the market, all aimed to help industrial companies move faster in their digitalization journey by putting the power of innovation in the hands of non-developers, often called Citizen Developers”.

Crosser has a unique hybrid architecture that allows companies to innovate centrally with a low-code approach and at the same time enables them to easily deploy the software anywhere, on the edge, on-premise or in the cloud. The hybrid architecture combines the best of two worlds; the simplicity of modern cloud technologies and the secure and low cost processing of data close to the data source, on premise or on an edge device.

NTT DOCOMO Ventures is the investment arm of NTT Group, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. NTT Data, another NTT Group entity, is one of the world’s largest systems integrators. Telecom companies and Enterprise System Integrators are two major stakeholders in IoT and Industrial IoT.

Takayuki Inagawa, President and CEO of NTT DOCOMO Ventures comments: “We believe that the visual programming capabilities that Crossers low-code platform offers can play a key role in accelerating the adoption of Industrial IoT. We look forward to partnering with Crosser to promote digitalization processes of manufacturing companies in Japan and globally”.

Montan-Ventures-Saar is a venture firm with its roots in the Saarland Steel industry in Germany. As the ventures arm of the Montan-Stiftung-Saar trust it invests in disruptive technologies along the process industry.

“We experience in our own steel companies the challenges and complexities of Industrial IoT”, says Reinhard Störmer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Montan-Stiftung-Saar. “The combination of the low-code approach and the ability to run the Crosser streaming analytics platform in the production processes we believe are key to enable fast and secure innovation in this field.”

Martin Thunman, the CEO of Crosser concludes: “We are very excited to have two new investors onboard that brings deep industry understanding to the table and that also gives us access to important markets.”

About Crosser Technologies

Crosser is a Swedish software company with installations in over 20 different countries. We design and develop a Low-Code software platform for Streaming Analytics, Automation and Integration for any Edge, On-premise or Cloud. Our aim is to remove complexity, simplify development and to enable non-programmers to innovate faster with a dramatically lower total cost of ownership. Our vision is that there are enormous business opportunities for companies When Machines Talk(™).

The software is ideally suited for Enterprise customers of various Industrial verticals such as Process Industry, Manufacturing, Utilities and other asset rich verticals. The modular and flexible solutions enable many different applications, including Industry 4.0, Industrial IoT and next generation Hybrid Integration, also called Hyper Automation by Gartner.

Industrial customers include, SCA AB, Valmet Corporation, Novo Nordisk, Gebhardt, Clarebout Potatoes and RubbleMaster.

Crosser was included in the “Cool Vendors in IoT Edge Computing, 2018” report by Gartner, Inc. and was named among the Top 10 Smart Factory Solutions in Europe 2020 by the industry magazine Manufacturing Technology Insights.

About NTT DOCOMO Ventures

NTT DOCOMO Ventures, the NTT Group’s corporate venture capital firm, aims to accelerate innovation for creation of new services, disruptive technologies and innovative processes serving as a primary channel for startup companies and venture communities on behalf of the NTT Group, Japan’s leading ICT service provider. We proactively enhance cooperation with exceptional entrepreneurs on a worldwide scale by providing capital from our corporate venture funds and vast business development opportunities with the NTT Group companies. https://www.nttdocomo-v.com/en/

About Industrifonden

Industrifonden is a venture capital investor based in Stockholm, Sweden, with a Technology and Life Science portfolio that stretches across the Nordics. https://industrifonden.com

About Spintop Ventures

Spintop Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm supporting the best Nordic technology companies to scale. Spintop is run by a team with extensive international technology industry track records as entrepreneurs, executives, investors and advisors. https://spintopventures.com

About 42CAP

The 42CAP investors Alex Meyer and Thomas Wilke invest in seed stage companies with global ambitions. With eCircle they previously built one of Europe’s largest SaaS start-ups and sold the profitable company to Teradata (NYSE:TDC) in 2012. The 42CAP credo Peers amongst Entrepreneurs is reflected in their investment approach, with which they support data- and technology-driven business models, product-focused founders and sustainable venture development. This background is appreciated by founder personalities, such as Nicolas Reboud (SHINE, Paris), Inigo Ijuantegui (Ontruck, Madrid), Gregor Stühler (scoutbee, Würzburg), Ben Askew (Packlink, Madrid) and Alex Igelsböck (Adverity, Vienna). https://www.42cap.com/

About Almi Invest

Almi Invest is Sweden’s most active startup investor. Almi Invest manages a total equity of SEK 3 billion and has since start invested in about 600 startups. Our best holdings have been divested to major industry players such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and Qlik or through successful IPOs such as Tobii and MIPS. Almi Invest is a Venture Capital company within the Almi Group. www.almiinvest.se

About Norrlandsfonden

Norrlandsfonden is a trust fund that works to promote the development of companies with ambitions for growth in the counties of Norrbotten, Västerbotten, Västernorrland, Jämtland and Gävleborg in northern Sweden. http://norrlandsfonden.se/