As one of eight hubs in Sweden, the project “Luft och Vatten med Internet of Things” is awarded (LoV-IoT) 12 million from Vinnova to take the development of digital environmental monitoring further. With IoT and sensors, the project partners have developed a more efficient system for the gathering of information about air and water quality in cities. The newly developed wireless sensors utilize TalkPool’s communication solution.

The long-term goal is to use more efficient tools to generate better information for decision-making about actions against pollution and thus change people’s behavior and contribute to better health for citizens all over the world.
“It is very positive that we get the opportunity to continue the development process that we have started. The project will play a key role in the City of Gothenburg’s development and future societal investment. The investment fits well into the municipality’s digitalization work with focus on air and water quality,” says Hung Nguyen, project manager LoV-IoT in Gothenburg City.

TalkPool leads the sub-project with water monitoring, where you can already monitor when wastewater is dispersed into the water system and unleashed in nature, using the TalkPool sensors developed in the first step of the project.
“Environmental monitoring is an exciting and important application of the new communications technology, which enables us to measure, through low-cost, battery-powered sensors, locations where we have not previously had coverage, such as downstream wells,” says Stefan Lindgren, Project Manager LoV-Iot and CTO on TalkPool.

Project facts: With the support of Vinnova, Formas, and the Swedish Energy Agency, the project is financed by IoT Sweden, one of the government’s strategic innovation programs
Applied amount from VINNOVA: SEK 12,000,000
Applicant Organization (Coordinator): City of Gothenburg
Project Manager: Hung Nguyen, City of Gothenburg
Other organizations participating in the project:
TalkPool, Vinnter, Rent Dagvatten, Swedish Hydro Solution, Ericsson, IMCG, Insplorion, Hagström Consulting, Swedish Transport Administration and Universeum. In addition, the research institutes participate in IVL, Acreo, TII. Gothenburg City Project Manager are in collaboration with Uppsala Municipality and Centro Mario Molina in Santiago, Chile, those who use the project’s results in their Operation.
Project period: 2017 – 2020.

TalkPool has signed a new contract with Cellnex (an international tower company) for Preventive Maintenance of 720 radio sites in the Netherlands. The contract has been signed by Camouflage BV, the local subsidiary of TalkPool in the Netherlands.
The contract execution has started last week. The contract period is 3.5 years, and has a total estimated value of Euro 1.5 m€.

This contract is the first of its kind for TalkPool in the Netherlands, and will create various opportunities for additional maintenance contracts in the country.

“This new contract is a successful proof of TalkPool’s capability to autonomously grow its local business, mainly because of the high quality service levels. We believe that the market for field maintenance services is important to TalkPool, also because of the relative long duration of these contracts.”, comments Erik Strömstedt CEO of Talkpool.

This press release may not be made public, published or distributed, neither directly or indirectly in or to USA, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zeeland, Switzerland, Singapore or South Africa

Press Release
21 June 2017

TalkPool almost doubles revenues through the acquisition of a leading telecom network services hub in the Middle East

Today, TalkPool AG (“TalkPool”) announces the purchase of 100% of the shares in LCC Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd (“LCC PAK”). LCC PAK was founded in 2008 and has approximately 1,000 employees in Pakistan, which becomes TalkPool’s largest market.

LCC PAK is performing similar kind of network services as TalkPool. LCC PAK has a history of stable financial performance, and has revenues of approximately EUR 10 million. TalkPool has good understanding of LCC PAK as its board member. Stan Schreuder worked for Lightbridge Communications Corporation (LCC) during the period 2002 until 2015.

LCC PAK has also developed an IoT-based solution for the management of telecom sites. LCC PAK’s site solution manages the power from different sources such as solar panels, batteries, utility and generators in an efficient manner. Furthermore, the solution handles site access and surveillance. TalkPool has experience from implementation of sustainable energy site solutions and of IoT-integration from several markets. The acquisition of LCC PAK creates an opportunity for TalkPool to offer price-efficient telecom site services with IoT-functionality.

The acquisition fits well with TalkPool’s strategy to grow through acquisitions of profitable network services companies that are well positioned to distribute, integrate and support IoT-solutions. TalkPool has previously worked in many countries in the Middle East including Pakistan with good results, and this acquisition marks a return to this region.

Stan Schreuder, who managed LCC in Europe and Middle East during several years, says that “the LCC hub in Pakistan is a very well-functioning unit in a fast-growing economy, with skilled staff, good client relations and strong finances with substantial assets, including Intellectual Property. I’m looking forward to work together with the team in Pakistan again”. Stan has also committed to participate in the financing of the acquisition.

The transaction in detail

The transaction means that 100% of the shares in LCC PAK are being acquired for a total consideration of USD 5.2 million of which USD 4.0 million will be paid at closing. The remaining USD 1.2 million will be made in two instalments in 2018 and 2019 and will be financed through TalkPool’s future cash flow.

The payment in connection with the closing will be financed through a rights issue amounting to 32.9 million SEK and a convertible loan amounting to 500,000 CHF. The rights issue is underwritten to 81 percent through subscription undertakings corresponding to SEK 17.8 million and guarantee agreements corresponding to SEK 9.0 million.

LCC PAK will be consolidated into TalkPool’s financial reporting. Closing is expected to take place latest by 31st October, 2017 although we expect the closing to happen sooner. The closing is subject to regulatory approvals.

Advisors
G&W Fondkommission is financial advisors and Setterwalls Advokatbyrå AB is legal counsel to TalkPool in connection with the acquisition. Alpen Capital (ME) Limited acted as financial advisors for LCC PAK.

Talkpool AB and Avnet Silica has entered a partner agreement for the distribution of Talkpool LoRaTM sensor devices used in evolving Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. This is an agreement to whereby Avnet Silica will offer Talkpool sensors on all Avnet Silica’s markets where LoRaWANTM is present. The two companies are additionally cooperating in enabling IoT solutions on the booming IoT Swedish market.

The Talkpool IoT team works with advanced technologies and offers IoT solutions, IoT networks and IoT products for Low Power Wide Area Technologies (LPWA) using LoRaTM. Avnet Silica adds on as a global and strong partner with leadership distribution of electronic components, products and services, that enables further reach of the Talkpool IoT product offering.

“The low power wide area network radio technology, that is optimized for very long range and years of battery powered devices, allows for millions of devices to be connected that previously wasn’t economically viable or even possible. Some example are, moisture detection in buildings, temperature and humidity readings in e.g. boats and mobile homes, CO2 levels in every street corner and many many more use cases. A very good ongoing example is Talkpool’s involvement in a consortium led by the City of Gothenburg within the strategic innovation program for environmental supervision of air and water in Gothenburg” , says Robert Spertina, Head of IoT.

“The Nordics continue to be at the global forefront of the IoT. The average number of connected things per person in the region is expected to be four times as many as in the rest of the world by 2021. We believe the bulk of the connections will not be consumer driven but industrial, smart city or agricultural applications. We are pleased to be able to offer turnkey sensor devices from Talkpool to our expanding customer base focusing on IoT “, says Kenneth Nilsson, Sales Manager at Avnet Silica Sweden.

Talkpool has during late 2016 and the beginning of 2017 celebrated break-throughs with several European network operators such as Deutsche Telekom, Belgacom, Vodafone and Orange – and order volumes have rapidly grown during the first four months of 2017. This client segment, which represented no revenues a year ago, is now TalkPool’s fastest growing customer group and biggest opportunity.

“TalkPool’s order intake from clients in Europe increased in the second half of 2016 and has continued to accelerate during the first four months of 2017 while order levels from clients in Africa and the Americas have remained stable. Europe generated almost a third of TalkPool’s overall orders in the first four months of 2017”, comments Erik Strömstedt CEO of Talkpool.

During the period January to April 2017, approximately 26% of Talkpool revenues relates to the African market and originates from many countries, whereas the 42% of the total revenues relates to the Americas and stems from only two markets.

Network services order volumes from Digicel in the Carribbean have remained unchanged during many years but its share has reduced to 37%, down from over 50% a year ago, as business from other clients is growing. Orders from China-based equipment vendor Huawei continue to increase while the share of orders from Swedish Ericsson, with whom TalkPool has a close relation, is continuing to decline.

TalkPool continues to get a wide range of IoT orders but the order volumes are still modest.

This information is information that TalkPool is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 08.30 CET on 22 May, 2017.

If you are a potential customer or one of our partners, you are welcome to register to one or more of our events. Read more on the links below and to register, send an email to the contact person or use the register form.

31 January 2017: THINGS, KTH, Stockholm.

Register here!

Contact Person: Robert Spertina

E-mail: robert.spertina@talkpool.com

6 Feb – 31 March 2017: Tele2 IoT developer challenge, Göteborg, Sweden.

Register here!

Contact Person: Robert Spertina

E-mail: robert.spertina@talkpool.com

27 Feb- 2 March 2017: MWC Barcelona, Business Sweden.

Register here!

Contact Person: Erik Strömstedt

E-mail: erik.stromstedt@talkpool.com

Eight months after its Initial Public Offering on Nasdaq First North, TalkPool’s Board of Directors hereby summarizes and clarifies the long term group strategy in this Grand Master Plan:

It took TalkPool 16 years to build a market presence with companies in 15 countries (in Europe, Africa and America) that assist large clients to adopt new communication technology. It will take less than half that time for TalkPool to attain global reach with approximately 30 companies. A handful hubs will be supporting the surrounding markets and the companies will develop local niche competences that are cross-sold to other TalkPool markets. We invite local partners to take ownership in TalkPool’s companies to foster entrepreneurship and risk sharing. This will result in increasing profit margins and growth. Headquarter costs will be kept low and focus will be on our most profitable operations, in particular on understanding and adapting to customer/industry needs and the eco-systems serving them.

The money generated from TalkPool’s market companies are used to develop infrastructure solutions and skills for the information society, also called “Internet of Things”. The solutions include apps (for smartphone, tablets and computers), smart devices (embedded with electronics, software & sensors) and network connectivity. Each “thing” is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system and is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure. The interconnection of these embedded devices, is expected to impact nearly all industries, or so called verticals, including smart cities, smart homes, transport and health. We will initially develop and market many different vertical solutions ranging from environment control to ski-school tracker and work-place management but we will eventually narrow in on a few vertical solutions, in which we become industry leaders.

In addition to developing own vertical IoT solutions, TalkPool will integrate solutions made by other companies. We will come up with solutions to client problems, from design to integration of the different IoT building blocks. Many of the building blocks are under development, so we will need to be innovative and embrace new technologies when developing architecture for the emerging internet solutions. In addition to connecting client products to the internet, we will provide financed end-to-end packages that allows our clients to charge for their service rather than selling the product.

In short we will

1. Expand our existing network services activities in profitable niches
2. Use the cash to develop own solutions for the Internet of Things
3. Assist our clients to convert from selling a product to selling a service

We will be profitable in spite of making investments in IoT and we will avoid building up costly organizational structures and outperform markets as a listed company. We believe in thinking differently and challenging the status quo. We are building an organization that will help many clients gain total control of their business.

Magnus Sparrholm, TalkPool board in January 2017.

This information is information that TalkPool is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 10.00 CET on 3 January, 2017.

As a next step in its growth strategy TalkPool AG acquires 100% of the shares in Belgium based Technetix NV from Technetix Group Ltd at a total price of 750.000 euro.

TalkPool AG today announces the acquisition of Technetix NV, based in Diegem, Belgium from Technetix Group Ltd, a leading global broadband cable network transmission technology provider. Technetix NV is offering repair and reversed engineering of telecom and IT equipment to telecom operators, internet- and cable TV service providers and IT companies.

Technetix NV and the repair service it offers has been part of Technetix for over a decade and has continued to enjoy success and gain new customers. After a strategic review, it was determined that the repair business would be better able to accelerate growth and serve its customers if it was part of company more focused on the renewable maintenance market like TalkPool. As part of the agreement, TalkPool has also entered into a partnership agreement with Technetix, whereby it will continue to utilise the services offered by TalkPool going forward.

“I am very happy to include the new entity in TalkPool Group and I’m convinced that the technical expertise and experience of the Technetix NV employees will add a lot of value to TalkPool’s Network Services business. Based on our global footprint we are in a position to develop the current business of Technetix NV further and TalkPool’s customers will gain from an extended and improved operation and maintenance offering. The recurring, value add niche business will add a new cornerstone to TalkPool’s business.”, says Erik Strömstedt, CEO of TalkPool.

Paul Broadhurst, CEO of Technetix Group, comments, “We are pleased that we have reached agreement with TalkPool and are confident that the business and all its employees will go from strength to strength under their ownership. We look forward to working with TalkPool over the coming years as we continue to make use of the expertise offered by this business.”

The total agreed purchase price is 4 times EBITDA or 750.000 euro. A first payment of 100.000 euro will be made at the completion date and 4 quarterly payments of 87.500 euro each will be executed in 2017. The last payment of maximum 300.000 euro is conditional on realized revenues in 2017.

TalkPool AG is investing in the associated company TalkPool AB in connection with a share issue in TalkPool AB. At the same time, TalkPool AB acquires the majority stake in the Asian product company On Yield Inc Ltd to strengthen TalkPool’s opportunity to develop customized IoT solutions.

TalkPool AG has, as previously announced, a global business based on two parts; service delivery in the field of telecommunication networks and solutions within IoT.

In connection with TalkPool AB’s new share issue, TalkPool AG invests 1 million in the company and increases its investment within IoT. In connection with this transaction, TalkPool AB acquires On Yield Inc Ltd through a share issue for non-cash consideration. On Yield develops software and products TalkPool use in their IoT solutions.

The proceeds of TalkPool AB’s share issue will be used for further development of sensors, software and complete solutions as well as skills development and recruitment in the area of IoT. Furthermore, TalkPool AB is starting a new leasing company for “IoT as a service”.

To meet the great interest in the “Internet of Things (IoT) as a service” concept, Talk Pool has started a dedicated leasing company called TalkPool IoT Services AB. The new company will offer our customers full financing for TalkPool’s IoT solutions in close co-operation with one of Sweden’s major banks. The new CEO of TalkPool IoT Services AB has a banking background himself and sees a great potential in offering financed IoT solutions to industry customers based on a leasing model.

In addition to the financial leasing service as such TalkPool IoT Services AB is offering a Managed IoT Service where a customer for example over a three year period can subscribe monthly to a IoT service that may include. A typical service agreement may include measurement, distribution and processing of measured values such as temperature, humidity, hot water consumption etc. TalkPool takes full responsibility for the solution, eliminating many barriers for our customers, who don’t need to worry about the technology.

To find out more read the press release here.

You can watch the presentation here (the video is in swedish).

To find out more read the press release here

To find out more read the press release here