This article was originally published by RFID Update.
September 1, 2005—RFID reader manufacturer ThingMagic today officially announced that it has completed a Series A round of funding in the amount of $10 million, led by The Exxel Group. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based maker of the popular Mercury4 reader has been profitable for each of the five years since its inception in 2000. RFID Update spoke with Vice President of Marketing Kevin Ashton about the company’s news. Ashton was a cofounder of MIT’s Auto-ID Center and an early and vocal evangelist of the RFID-enabled “Internet of Things”.
Ashton said that the money will go towards research and development around new products and ideas. “What funding is about is future development and taking some of the really cool things we want to do and making them real,” he said. “This money is all going on the future.” As a profitable company, ThingMagic will continue funding its core RFID reader business from revenues. The company has about 40 employees currently and is growing fast, according to Ashton.
When asked about the state of the RFID industry, Ashton said that from ThingMagic’s perspective, it is proceeding “fantastically.” “The industry continues to grow. The vendor base is dynamic. We see big new entrants. Overall, it’s a very healthy picture.” He noted that the picture is especially rosy from the end-user perspective as increasing market competition will drive down RFID prices while driving up the technology’s performance. “There has probably been more investment in RFID in the last two years than ever before, which is good news for the industry as a whole.”
