Cognosos-Analyzing and Optimizing Asset Visibility and Management

The Driver:

Cognosos recently raised $25M in a recent venture round led by Riverwood Capital. As part of the funding Joe De Pinho and Eric Ma from Riverwood will join Cognosos’ Board. Cognosos has developed a cloud-based platform of real-time location services (RTLS) and process optimization software. The fundraising round brings Cognosos’ total funding to $38.1M. The proceeds will be used to allow Cognosos to double its staff from the current 50 to 100 as well as continue to expand in healthcare and automotive manufacturing, among other industries.

Key Takeaways:

Cognosos grew revenue by over 226% in 2022 according to the Atlanta Business Journal and expects to double it year-over-year in the coming year (Cognosos)
Between 2020 and 2022 the average price of healthcare services increased at 2.4%, while the Producer Price Index (PPI) increased at 14.3%, leading to a further squeeze on healthcare supply chains as per-patient input costs have exploded (University of Arkansas)
A single Cognosos gateway can provide support for up to 100,000 square feet and manage location information for up to 10,000 assets
In 2021 it is estimated that at least one-third of healthcare providers operated under negative margins, with a combined loss of $54 billion in net income (Kaufman-Hall)

The Story:

Cognosos was founded in 2014 and is based on technology developed by the founders at Georgia Tech’s Smart Antenna lab for radio astronomy. According to the company’s website, while investigating techniques in radio astronomy to combine signals from multiple dishes, the founders of Cognosos discovered a way to use software-defined radio (SDR) and cloud-based signal processing. This dramatically lowered the cost and power requirements for wireless sensor transmitters. The result, called RadioCloud, was created with the belief that businesses of all sizes should be able to use ubiquitous, low-cost wireless technology to harness the power of the Internet of Things (IoT). The name Cognosos is derived from the Latin verb cognoscere, meaning “to become aware of, to find.” The company states that they have over 100 customers, 4000 registered users and grew revenue by over 226% in 2022 according to the Atlanta Business Journal.

The Differentiators:

Cognosos real-time location services (RTLS) technology and process optimization software allows companies to track their assets’ movement, improve operational visibility and safely increase and maximize productivity. The company’s RTLS combines Low Energy Bluetooth technology with AI and its proprietary long-range wireless networking technology to help reduce costs of deployment and improve tracking ability. The company has 10 U.S. patents and states that a single gateway can provide support for up to 100,000 square feet and manage location information for up to 10,000 assets. Their technology is easily deployable without having to pull wires, move tiling or other fixtures minimizing any disruptions to operations and allowing them to leverage existing Bluetooth infrastructure, including Bluetooth-enabled fixtures. The company states that this technology will allow them to bring critical assets on-line much more rapidly than competitors (ex: weeks vs. months). The company’s major clients are in healthcare, automobile, logistics and manufacturing.

Implications:

For years hospitals and healthcare industries have struggled to effectively manage and optimize their management of assets. The industry is rife with stories of nurses, aides, and others squirreling monitors and other devices away in secret hiding places so that they don't have to spend time and unnecessary energy tracking down what they need. Now more than ever, with hospitals facing increased financial pressures, workforce shortages and employee dissatisfaction, a solution that improves and eases the management of such assets is needed. Given Cognosos' ability to limit the disruption to clinical operations and patient care while helping to reduce costs and employee productivity, they should be positioned well going forward. In addition, since Cognosos’s product is not hardware-based but instead relies on the Cloud and AI software to manage assets, they can provide real-time asset tracking with lower infrastructure costs. Our belief is that solutions like Cognosos’s which leverage both the Cloud and AI in helping to address healthcare’s back-office and supply chain challenges will become the first to be widely adopted and hasten the adoption of these technologies within the industry and pave the way for broader adoption or clinical technology down the road.