Edge-to-Cloud Partnership, Investment in Pratexo Announced by ABB

ABB, a technology leader in electrification and automation, announced a strategic partnership and investment in Pratexo, an edge-to-cloud acceleration platform company. The partnership involves a minority investment in Pratexo through ABB’s venture capital unit, ABB Technology Ventures (ATV). Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.

Pratexo’s technology platform supports IoT and artificial intelligence initiatives which demand compute power at the edge. The company’s technology enables the rapid set up of systems that can process huge amounts of data generated by IoT sensors and run advanced analytics in real time close to the location of the device, rather than in the cloud.

ABB’s Electrification Service will leverage Pratexo’s no-code development platform, Pratexo Studio, to accelerate and revolutionize how edge-to-cloud digital solutions are designed for customers, allowing them to make better decisions for future operations.  The collaboration with Pratexo is intended to help ABB’s customers deploy edge-based networks and solution architectures that provide real time insights with the added benefits of reduced cloud data transfer volumes, improved data privacy and security, and the ability to run even when not connected to the internet.

An example use case includes customized, decentralized software solutions that allow distribution grid operators to manage, monitor and assess electrical systems in real time, identify what could potentially be causing machine faults, and optimize at the most local level to adjust to rapidly changing circumstances such as identifying and responding to changes in power availability and consumption.

Pratexo, a member of the ABB SynerLeap innovation growth hub, was one of three winners of ABB Electrification’s 2022 Startup Challenge, a global competition for innovators to develop pioneering concepts that support the world’s safe, smart and sustainable shift towards electrification.

The partnership is ABB’s sixth venture capital investment of 2023 and helps expand the company’s ecosystem of innovation partners developing solutions that support decarbonization. Since its formation in 2009, ABB’s venture capital unit ATV has invested around $300 million into startups that are aligned with its electrification, robotics, automation, and motion portfolio.