Archives For Italy

Its worldwide headquarters are in Brooklyn, New York and its heart is in Italy: Fluidmesh – that was founded in 2005 by four Italian engineers, the brothers Umberto and Cosimo Malesci with their friends Torquato Bertani and Andrea Orioli – is being acquired by US tech giant Cisco.
“Our goal was to reliably deliver fiber-like performance via unlicensed wireless spectrum – providing connectivity for mission critical video, voice, and data,” reads Fluidmesh website. “Fluidmesh wireless products are the enablers of outdoor and large-scale applications of the Internet of Things: smart cities, urban video-surveillance, connected vehicles and trains, and industrial automation. Connecting things – it’s what we’re about!”.

Indeed its technology is successfully used by subway systems, ports and even mines. That’s why Cisco is interested in it. “Cisco will use Fluidmesh’s products – explains Liz Centoni, Senior Vice President and General Manager
Cisco Cloud, Compute, & IoT
– to extend its industrial wireless leadership position to on-the-move applications and where reliable backhaul is mission critical, including: – Rail and transportation: Provide high-speed and reliable connectivity between the trains and the trackside eliminating potential gaps in data transfer, all without the need to stop even when traveling at high speeds. – Mining operations: Improving worker safety with ultra-reliable communication systems for remote operations of mining equipment, eliminating the need to send workers into a potentially hazardous environment. – Manufacturing and industrial automation: Increased productivity with autonomous moving robots operating on a resilient and low-latency wireless network.”
The acquisition is expected to close in CYQ2 2020, subject to customary closing conditions and required regulatory approvals.

Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa

Fluidmesh has its European headquarters in Milan and a research team is Pisa, the Tuscan city famous for its University System specializing in computer science and technology research.

Data are so important to understand and fight coronavirus. The NYC based startup Cuebiq is helping thanks to its “COVID-19 Mobility Insights“: “We understand this is a tough time for businesses as well as consumers. As part of our commitment to sharing data for the greater good, Cuebiq is providing free access to mobility and store visitation patterns during the COVID-19 crisis to help businesses as they look to adjust their strategies to meet this new and uncertain market.”

The NYTimes used Cuebiq data to analyze how the stay-at-home orders have or have not halted travel for Americans. “The divide in travel patterns, based on anonymous cellphone data from 15 million people, suggests that Americans in wide swaths of the West, Northeast and Midwest have complied with orders from state and local officials to stay home. Disease experts who reviewed the results say those reductions in travel — to less than a mile a day, on average, from about five miles — may be enough to sharply curb the spread of the coronavirus in those regions, at least for now.”

Cuebiq’s data were used also in Italy by the University of Turin to study Italians’ movements during the coronavirus emergency.

Cuebiq is an offline intelligence and measurement company helping marketers understand the true impact of their cross-channel advertising in the offline world. Four young Italians – CEO Antonio Tomarchio and EVP of Product Ecosystem William Nespoli, both alumni of Politecnico di Milano, with Chief Information Security Officer Walter Ferrara and Chief Innovation Officer Filippo Privitera – founded the company in Milan in 2015. They decided to have their headquarters in New York to develop the business on a global scale, while maintaining R&D in Milan. Right now they are hiring both in the US and in Italy.

From left, courtesy of StartupItalia: Filippo Privitera, William Nespoli, Antonio Tomarchio, and Walter Ferrara