ABB buys minority stake in edge-to-cloud solution provider Pratexo

Electrical infrastructure and automation technology provider ABB on Thursday announced a second round of investment in US-based edge-to-cloud software solution provider, Pratexo, further expanding its existing ties with the technology start-up.

Under the financing deal, ABB will acquire a minority stake in Pratexo through ABB’s venture capital unit, ABB Technology Ventures (ATV). ABB, however, did not disclose details of the financing and stake acquisition.

Pratexo provides Edge software, Asus-made Edge appliances with AI services (such as image recognition, object tracking, and fault detection), as well as services for monitoring electrical grids and fault alerts. 

ABB and Pratexo are jointly developing digital solutions for complex power system to make them secure, resilient and reliable.

As part of the investment, ABB will now have Eric Deschenes, currently AAB’s head of global marketing and sales for electrification service as its representative on the board of Pratexo. 

Pratexo is a winner of ABB Electrification’s 2022 Startup Challenge and a member of the ABB SynerLeap innovation growth hub that supports smart and sustainable shift towards electrification.

Founded in 2019, Pratexo has built some of the most scalable and performant cloud-based applications for global organisations such as PayPal and NASA. 

Besides Pratexo, ABB’s venture capital unit has invested around $450 million in startups in the electrification, robotics, automation and motion areas.