Ekahau Locates $$ in USA

In less than four years, Finnish company Ekahau is generating nearly 70 percent of its revenues in North America – with significant support from FinNode and its funding affiliate, Tekes.

Ekahau adds the power of real time location tracking capabilities to enterprise wireless networks. The company’s technology is among the industry’s most accurate and cost effective for locating people, assets, inventory and other objects using existing Wi-Fi networks. Ekahau’s software-based Real Time Location System (RTLS) is based on over 10 years of research by one of the leading research groups in the world, the Complex Systems Computation Group at the University of Helsinki. The company’s primary customer base is the health care industry, where cost effectiveness is the key especially in U.S. The company’s RTLS solution is also employed by manufacturing, supply chain and mining industries. Government agencies, such as the U.S. army and NASA, also are among Ekahau’s customers.

Ekahau opened its first sales office in United States in 2003, when the company was only three years old. The importance of local presence was well understood by the company leaders. FinNode/Tekes has had an integral part in funding the company’s technology projects from the beginning. Today about 70 percent of Ekahau’s business comes from North America. As is common for Finnish high-tech companies, Ekahau’s R&D is still operated in Finland. Apart from the unique, cutting edge technology, Ekahau drives its success from strategic partnerships with companies that are world leaders in their own field e.g. 3M, McKesson, and Nortel.