"We are delighted with the trust placed in us by all three investors, B37, Purple Arch and DTCP (Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners)," says Josef Brunner, CEO of Relayr. Relayr will receive a total of 30 million US dollars in fresh capital. "This investment will allow us to grow substantially and further establish ourselves globally. As we enter into long-term partnerships with our customers, a solid approach is particularly important to accompany them on the way to promising 'pay-per-use' and 'as-a-service' business models that combine technology, service, insurance and financing."

The investment will enable Relayr to further expand its core competencies in the technology sector and to focus even more strongly on topics such as Industry 4.0 connectivity - supported by artificial intelligence. The plan is for Deutsche Telekom to support Relayr in offering SMEs in particular future-proof, system-agnostic Industry 4.0 connectivity that serves as a robust foundation for innovative business models.

From Relayr's perspective, this means generating a standardized data stream from the so-called 'edge', i.e. from data sources such as machines, motors or entire plants, and integrating this into the company's own data storage via middleware for later enrichment. Through the use of artificial intelligence, Relayr identifies business-relevant activities and offers applications, for example for failure prevention (predictive maintenance) or for the digital simulation of product behavior (digital twin).

In addition to the technology aspect, Relayr will focus on the business topics of financing and insuring digital transformation projects. The transition from capex- to opex-based business models in particular gives rise to new liquidity and risk issues that can be examined by the start-up within a project and addressed together with partners in the form of innovative financing alternatives and reinsurance.

"Deutsche Telekom's globally available connectivity platform and Relayr's industry-specific IoT solutions complement each other perfectly," says Hagen Rickmann, Managing Director Business Customers Telekom Deutschland.