Singapore startup UnaBiz emerges as white knight to troubled French tech giant

SIGFOX was once the poster child of France’s startup scene. It raised over US$300 million from the likes of Salesforce and Total, and earned praise from government officials.

But a botched expansion strategy led to the downfall of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) giant. It ran out of cash and filed for French bankruptcy protection early this year, searching for a buyer.

A low-profile Singapore startup, UnaBiz, on Apr 21 emerged as the winning bidder for Sigfox, among 8 other contenders. UnaBiz is buying Sigfox and its French subsidiary for 25 million euros (S$36.4 million), The Business Times (BT) understands. This is funded by UnaBiz’s cash reserves.

“Sigfox had grown too fast and ran out of cash after its last fundraising, mostly due to its large-scale commitment to network deployment in the US,” UnaBiz’s co-founder and co-chief Henri Bong told BT.

Founded in 2010, Sigfox operates a so-called “0G” wireless network that connects low-powered devices and sensors, an essential element for smart machinery and systems.

It shot to prominence after raising US$115 million in 2015, becoming an emblem of “La French Tech", the country’s promising startup scene. Sigfox was later reportedly valued at 600 million euros in another fundraise. Media reports subsequently referred to it as a "unicorn", or a company with over US$1 billion valuation.

With global ambitions, Sigfox expanded to the US in 2015. But it struggled to deliver countrywide coverage of its solutions, according to trade publication Enterprise IoT Insights. Sigfox reportedly ran up some US$150 million of debt in the US and also faced competition from alternative networks.

Despite these troubles, Bong is still a fervent believer in Sigfox’s “fantastic” technology and traction across 75 countries, with 20 million connected devices. He wants to reinvent Sigfox and collaborate with other IoT communication technologies on new market opportunities.

The Singapore-based entrepreneur has longstanding ties with Sigfox. In 2015, Bong served as its director for Asia business development and sales. The next year, he and co-founder Philippe Chiu set up UnaBiz as the exclusive network operator of Sigfox in Singapore and Taiwan, becoming one of its largest customers.

As a representative of Sigfox operators around the world, “UnaBiz had to step in to ensure continuity and future growth”, Bong said. He added that Sigfox’s US liabilities have been resolved under the receivership process.

His 6-year-old startup specialises in sensor product design, manufacturing and cloud platform services using Sigfox. It has also tapped other IoT communication technologies, such as Sigfox competitors LoRa, LTE-M and NB-IoT.

UnaBiz has deployed over 1.4 million sensors in 28 countries for applications such as smart metering and facilities management. Past projects include Japan's largest remote gas metre reading infrastructure, an autonomous tracked beer kegs fleet in Australia and New Zealand, and facility management for a Singapore educational institution.

Last October, UnaBiz raised US$25 million in a Series B round led by Japanese asset manager Sparx Group and joined by Singapore-listed investment company GK Goh.

Prior to that, it raised over US$10 million in Series A funding led by Japanese venture firm Global Brain, via its KDDI Open Innovation Fund. The startup also expanded to Japan under Invest Tokyo, a programme by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

UnaBiz continues to be on the lookout for M&A (mergers and acquisitions) opportunities, Bong said. Earlier this year, it acquired Sensatag, a Dutch provider of industrial IoT tracking solutions, for an undisclosed sum.

UnaBiz’s M&A appetite comes as other startups are similarly on the hunt for good deals, buoyed by pandemic recovery. For instance, Singapore fintech company Nium is acquiring local peer SoCash, months after buying UK travel payments specialist Ixaris and an Indian unit of fraud-hit Wirecard.