IoT startup Brazn clinches US$3.65m from Tin Men in seed round

LOCAL Internet-of-Things (IoT) startup Brazn has secured a seed investment of US$3.65 million from Tin Men Capital, the startup announced in a press statement on Monday.

Tin Men - a South-east Asia, B2B-focused venture capital firm - is Brazn's first and sole venture investor currently.

The funds will be used to enhance the firm's existing products - Buildos, a secure facilities solution, and Retailr, a smart retail solution. Brazn also has an agriculture-focused product called Agrios.

IoT operating system is an online platform that gathers data protocols from any sensor device, digests and processes these real-time data into actionable alerts and visualisations, and integrates them with existing business systems.

In 2018, Brazn launched all three solutions and secured successful pilots in Malaysia and Thailand within a year. Some of the Thai partners that Brazn worked with include Loxley Public Company Limited, one of Thailand's largest IT systems integration businesses, Mochit Bus Terminal, a convenience store operator and Sunsweet in Chiangmai. The startup also worked with a convenience store operator in Malaysia.

"The retail IoT space is filled with either point solutions that work in isolation, or large implementations that are not practical in today's fast-moving world that needs on-demand SaaS solutions," said Adrian Lee, founder and CEO of Brazn.

"Brazn brings deep domain knowledge, big data and business visualisations in one platform that holistically addresses the real-world operational needs of retailers of every size," he added.

Tin Men provided early inputs before becoming a shareholder. Brazn was able to leverage this in developing three complete-use cases, in Smart Security for sensitive facilities, Retail IoT for real-time in-store analytics, and to improve soft crop agriculture.

Tin Men co-founder Jeremy Tan said the partnership between Tin Men and Brazn has unlocked the huge potential of Brazn. He added that this enables genuine long-term partnerships with founders and can create value for both current and future investors.