‘Small but positive step’ as Italy’s Reply SpA takes 20% stake in wearable tech provider Sensoria for US$5m

Reply S.p.A has agreed to acquire a 20% stake in the Redmond, Washington-based Sensoria Inc, a provider of wearable technology for the Internet of Things. One analyst calls it a small but positive step towards a multidisciplinary approach to wearable tech.

This is described as a chance for Reply S.p.A. to expand its presence in North America having signed a confidential and exclusive term sheet. The agreement is for the consulting, systems integration and digital services company to take a 20% interest in Sensoria Inc., a wearable technology and Internet of Things (IoT) developer. The investment, which amounts to US$5 million, is part of Reply’s development strategy connected to the IoT.

Sensoria was founded with the vision that clothing would become the fulcrum between the Internet of Things and People (IoT and IoP) as a “seamless, naturally wearable body-sensing computer. Today,” said Davide Vigano, co-founder and chief executive officer of Sensoria Inc, “smart clothing helps professional athletes, as well as everyday fitness enthusiasts, improve performance and monitor health and wellness in real time. Sensoria is becoming the ‘Internet of Everyone’ wearable platform provider. Thanks to our technology, comprised of textile and traditional sensors, electronics, cloud and mobile software, each garment becomes a biometric data-gathering device.”

Vigano continued, “This round of financing, coupled with Reply’s system integration capabilities and business reach will help us to accelerate the pace of innovation, convert data into wisdom and make vision become reality for our customers and partners.”

The first collection of Sensoria wearable technologies includes a sports bra, T-shirt and socks that track your biometric data via textile sensors embedded into the fabric. These sensors are connected to on-board electronics designed for each garment to relay heart rate, activity, running form, wellness and fitness levels to the Sensoria mobile app in real time, giving actionable information to the wearer and his or her trusted medical or training advisor.

Sensoria’s objective is said to be to work with industry partners to enable the Internet of Everyone. After releasing the Sensoria Developer Kit, designed for developers of wearable solutions, the company will continue to work with leaders in each industry to create connected, biometric driven consumer experiences.

“The Internet of Things,” said Reply’s chairman, Mario Rizzante, “is fuelling the next wave of technology innovation and Reply intends to play a key role in this epochal transition. Our investment in Sensoria is part of all this.”

“Sensoria,” concluded Rizzante, “is made up of multidisciplinary teams comprised of materials engineers, software and hardware engineers, product and user experience experts. Together they have developed the first truly wearable development platform. We see tremendous potential synergies between their people, our own IoT platform and our consulting and system integration teams in Europe and in the United States. Together we can leverage the power of the Sensoria Developer Kit to reach out to business and technology leaders and deliver unique, meaningful and quantified experiences to our enterprise customers in a broader and broader range of industries.”

Reply [MTA, STAR: REY] specialises in the design and implementation of solutions based on new communication channels and digital media. Through its network of specialist companies, Reply supports some of Europe’s leading industrial groups in telecoms and media, industry & services, banking & insurance, and public administration to define and develop business models, suited to the new models of big data, cloud computing, digital media and the IoT.

Since the beginning of the year, the Reply Group achieved consolidated sales of €153.6 million, an increase of 14.2% compared to the same period in 2013. Earnings before taxes for the first quarter of 2014 reached €16.7 million.

Sensoria Inc.’s proprietary e-textile sensor platform reportedly enables the company to power apparel to deliver critical life-changing information to health and fitness users.

M2M Now asked Beecham Research, specialists in wearable technologies, to comment on the investment.  Saverio Romeo, principal analyst at Beecham said, “What do we have in this story? We have Sensoria, sport smart clothing developers. We then have Reply, ICT consulting company with activities around data and cloud. The Reply know-how can be beneficial for Sensoria products. Sensoria can be a door for Reply towards the world of wearable product.

“But, what I wish is that these two Italian companies – yes, Sensoria is US-based, but one of the minds behind it is Italian, David Vigano – will involve the Italian fashion industry in their story. Reply and Sensoria becoming the inspirator/conspirator of an Italian wearable tech hub; Reply and Sensoria moving beyond the borders of the Land of Technology and in those territories there are companies waiting for leaders!” added Romeo. “In a nutshell, this is a positive move for both, but it is a small step towards the multidisciplinary approach wearable technology requires.”