Actility wins Ernst and Young regional Start-Up of the Year Award 2016

Actility, the global leader in innovative solutions for the low power wide area internet of things, has been recognized by EY and the French magazine L’Express as the Start-Up of the Year 2016 for the region of Western France. Olivier Hersent and Nicolas Jordan, co-founders of Actility, accepted the award at a ceremony yesterday in the Hôtel de Région des Pays de la Loire in Nantes.

Actility, a start-up created in 2010 in Brittany, offers a low power wide area (LPWA) IoT solution using  open standards based  LoRaWAN technology. Actility’s ThingPark also creates an ecosystem for partners offering products, software, and technology pr services for IoT networks simplifying the deployment of complete end to end IoT solutions.

Olivier Hersent created Actility after founding NetCentrex and serving as CTO at Comverse, both big players in the telecom. Thanks to his creativity and innovative thinking, Hersent developed a solution based on LoRaWAN technology, which allows objects to communicate over a long distance whilst still consuming very low power. His goal: to connect the world through Things and create smart cities and services for enterprises, governments and citizens. “The first word that comes to mind at this very moment is proud. I am proud, so proud to know that Actility has been recognized as Start-Up of the Year in the West in 2016 after an intense year that has marked a turning point for our company in terms of growth and innovation. We have all been working passionately to develop this company and to position it as a leader on the world stage. And this is only the beginning, our plans for the near future are ambitious and we aim to make the world a little smarter through IoT and LPWA networks”, enthuses Olivier.

Nicolas Jordan, co-founder and Senior Vice-President Enterprise Operations and Business Development adds: “To win an award for our innovation potential and growth on the IoT market is the best compliment any entrepreneur could receive. Our adventure has been wonderful from the start and will get even better in the coming years.”

Actility congratulates the other award winners of this contest in the categories of Entrepreneur of the Year, Strategic Vision and Disruptive Strategy.

The Entrepreneur of the Year Award is distributed in seven French regions: East, Ile-de-France, Mediterranean, North, West, Rhône-Alpes/Auvergne and South-West.

Actility now goes forward to the national awards which will be held on 18 October in Paris.