Press Releases

Kurita Water Industries Ltd. (headquartered in Nakano-ku, Tokyo; Michiya Kadota, President; hereinafter "Kurita") announces that it completed an investment in APANA Inc. (headquartered in Washington, U.S.A.; hereinafter "APANA"), a venture company that develops water management technologies and services using IoT in North America, on December 31, 2016.

Kurita is seeking opportunities to collaborate with venture companies in Japan and overseas for the purpose of creating new solutions in its business domains of water and the environment. As part of these efforts, Kurita made a strategic investment in APANA on this occasion.

APANA has developed the technologies and service business related to the monitoring and big data analysis of water consumption using new IoT radio communication technology called LoRa^®(*1)for commercial and industrial facilities in North America, and helped leading global retailers save an average of more than 20% on water use a year with the introduction of its technologies and services.
Kurita decided to make the investment this time because the technologies and services of APANA contribute to the realization of Kurita's corporate vision of "becoming an advanced water and environmental management company." Kurita will seek to make further extensive contributions to customers and society by working to create synergies with APANA and developing them as a new service business.

Kurita will continue to accelerate the creation of more new businesses and technologies through proactive interaction with venture companies.

[Terminology]

• *1:LoRa^®:

  LoRa^® is one of the new radio communication technologies called LPWA (Low Power Wide Area).
  In the IoT radio communication technology used for sensor networks, the following performance is expected; (1) highly thrifty power consumption that enables long-term operation with batteries, (2) a wide transmission and reception range and (3) low costs of communication and communication modules. LPWA attracts attention because it is expected to meet these requirements, which were challenges with existing radio communication technologies.