From research to software licensing
The roots of Wirepas are in Finland and at the Tampere University of Technology. Through business-driven product and business development we have landed where we are today - the leading global mesh network provider for large-scale IoT.
2000 – 2010
Wirepas was founded in 2010 as a spin-off from a 10-year research program at the Tampere University of Technology. The main objective of the research was to connect an unlimited number of battery operated sensors – and this at a time when the processing power of a microprocessor was a fraction of that available in today’s radio System-on-Chips.
2010-2014 – Wirepas established
In 2010 the company was founded. The original business model was to design, manufacture and sell sensor hardware which had Wirepas Mesh as the connectivity technology. The company gained traction in building automation, especially in the Nordics. However, the scaling of the business proved difficult.
2014 – The rebirth of the company
In 2014 the company initiated a transformation process under the leadership of current CEO, Teppo Hemiä. The new strategy was based on the idea of focusing on software licensing and partnering with hardware vendors. The new strategy required product renewal – Wirepas Mesh (initially named Wirepas Pino, Pino = Stack in Finnish) was productized for licensing. The initial focus market was Automatic Meter Reading in electricity grids.
2015
Wirepas closes Series-A funding from Inventure (Helsinki, Finland) and starts to prepare for scaling the business in global context. The first office is opened in France. The company starts to build access to new application areas such as Water Metering, Lightning, Solar and Beaconing. At the end of the year the company employs 15 people.
2016
Environmental Technology Fund (London, UK), Vito Ventures (Munich, DE) and Inventure invested in Series-B, which enables the company to build its global presence at invest in ecosystem and partnerships build-up, and in marketing. Wirepas offices are established in the UK, South-Korea, the USA and Germany. Wirepas introduces Network Monitoring Tool, and closes tens of new licensees for Wirepas Mesh. The company employs 30 people at the end of the year. Hafslund starts the smart metering deployment with Aidon hardware and Wirepas Mesh in Oslo, Norway. The biggest mesh network on the planet is emerging one meter at a time.
2017
Wirepas opens an office in Australia – Wirepas is now present on four continents. The key application areas are Smart Metering, Lighting, Asset Management and General Sensoring. Full coverage of the ecosystem, from silicon to IoT platforms. Wirepas employs over 50 people in four continents and is presented by ecosystem partners around the world.