Nokia names industrial automation startup HaiLa winner of the 2019 Nokia Open Innovation Challenge
Press Release
Nokia names industrial automation startup HaiLa winner of the 2019 Nokia Open Innovation Challenge
21 November 2019
Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced that Canadian startup company HaiLa, which offers technologies that can drastically reduce energy consumption for Internet of Things devices, has won the 2019 Nokia Open Innovation Challenge. HaiLa was awarded 100,000 in financial resources and will be given access to researchers and product development teams at Nokia and Nokia Bell Labs to position it for business growth as the world moves towards industrial automation enabled by 5G networks.
HaiLa beat out more than 200 other startups from 70 countries around the world that competed in this year's competition, which involved several assessment rounds. The company and four other finalists gave presentations and demonstrations at a grand finals event held today at Nokia's global headquarters. German startup Wandelbots finished in second place.
Located in Montreal, HaiLa's technology enables IoT device data to hitchhike on ambient waves, drastically reducing IoT power consumption. HaiLas technology allows reuse of the ambient signals in the environment and simply backscatter the modulated data on top, eliminating the necessity for dedicated single tone transmitters, making the technology easier to integrate with the existing infrastructure and reduce IoT power consumption.
The Nokia Open Innovation Challenge continues Nokia's proud heritage in investing in new technologies. As a key component of the competition is the ability of the startups to work with Nokia, HaiLa and Wandelbots will also have the opportunity to collaborate with Nokia Bell Labs researchers to enrich Nokia's end-to-end 5G network architecture with the startups' innovative use cases. Nokia has complete build-outs of its end-to-end network, complete with network slicing, at Future X Labs in Espoo and Murray Hill, NJ.
This year's Nokia Open Innovation Challenge, which was launched in April, sought out startups with disruptive ideas in industrial automation categories that would help bring about Industry 4.0. The competition was organized by Nokia Bell Labs in partnership with NGP Capital, a global venture capital firm, backed by Nokia. This year marks the seventh year of the annual competition.
Charlotte Savage, Founder of HaiLa, said, Such an honor to be chosen as the winner, thank you to Nokia for this incredible opportunity. However, this was never about the competition. The goal was to establish a real partnership with one of the leaders of the networking industry to enable sustainable wireless communication. We look forward to be at the forefront of carbon emission reduction with Nokia.
Marcus Weldon, President of Nokia Bell Labs and Corporate CTO of Nokia, said, We're on the verge of an industrial revolution, enabled by 5G networks that will unleash significant new levels of productivity and value for enterprises and industries. This year's Nokia Open Innovation Challenge was designed to nurture innovative new solutions in automation, robotics and human augmentation, which are foundational to this revolution. I would like to congratulate HaiLa on their innovative solution to reduce energy consumption for IoT devices, as well as all the other finalists. We look forward to deepening our collaboration to create this exciting future together.
Bo Ilsoe, Partner of NGP Capital, said, It was a great pleasure to work with so many talented entrepreneurs and companies. A winner had to be chosen, but everyone participating deserves success on their future path. NGP is a proud partner of the Nokia Open Innovation Challenge.
The other finalists that competed in today's event included:
Wandelbots: Germany-based Wandelbots, which won second place and 50,000, is democratizing industrial robotics by enabling anyone to program any robot via smart input devices and example-based teaching. Wandelbots is the first company to offer a technology that allows industrial robots to be trained by laypeople which helps bringing down the time and financial resources needed for both small- and large-scale automatization projects. This means that Wandelbots is at the forefront of a growing market segment that works towards making robotics available to more users worldwide.
ControlThings: Based in Finland, ControlThings offers a middleware technology for recording Verifiable Audit Trails using crypto identities in devices and user interfaces. The benefits of the local ledger technology that ControlThings uses in Verifiable Audit Trails is privacy and scalability. The ControlThings unique solution scales up to any sizes of networks and provides edge computing, with no required central point of control. The security model allows authentication and communication even in an off-line situation.
Maxst: Based in South Korea, Maxst offers an augmented reality (AR) engine and visual SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping). Maxst's platform enables authoring of AR contents easily online with drag-and-drop interface and a rich media contents library. This will expand the target users from AR app developers to general designers or marketers without coding language expertise requirements. Maxst will completely convert the developer-oriented AR SDK ecosystem into a SaaS AR platform. Hence, the company can significantly reduce development cost as Maxst's AR platform offers a holistic AR experience with a subscription-based software on cloud.
SanNoor: Located in Saudi Arabia, SaNoor Technologies is developing laser-based visible light communication devices and systems for high-speed, energy-saving, eco-friendly, and secure wireless data communications. SaNoor is addressing t
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
09/09/2026
New parts aimed at hip-hop and pop productions
The latest update to Celemony's innovative virtual session musician expands the collection of built-in in...
09/09/2026
Save up to 40% until 21 September 2026
Sonarworks are currently running their Autumn Sale, with discounts of up to 40% currently available across their rang...
09/09/2026
Upcoming title officially launches in September 2026
Bjooks' celebrations for this year's 909 Day will be welcome news amongst drum machine lovers, ...
09/09/2026
Wednesday 9 September 2026
Tom Daley adds final stitch to giant Baa-Ewe' t...
09/09/2026
Red Seat Ventures Integrates Barometer into Speakeasy to Maximize Podcast Revenu...
09/09/2026
Baselight-powered color comes natively to Media Composer, connecting creative de...
09/09/2026
RT brings three packed days of live radio, entertainment, news, weather and fun
Join RT Radio 1: Morning Ireland, Oliver Callan, Today with David McCullagh,...
08/09/2026
Built for rap producers, by rap producers
Sauceware Audio, the independent plug-in company founded by Grammy-nominated producer Jacob (Travis Scott, 21 Sava...
08/09/2026
Classic Sound Techniques design revived
Warm Audio's latest release delivers a meticulous recreation of the preamp circuitry employed by the Sound Techn...
08/09/2026
Latest soft synth inspired by the Memorymoog
XILS Lab have just launched a software instrument that draws its inspiration from Moog's iconic Memorymoog,...
08/09/2026
September 08, 2026 NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - Soundcraft today announced the launch of its Signature Plus Series Analog Connected Mixing Consoles. As the next genera...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Sky Go gets a major upgrade for Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers
Today, Sky launches a new version of the Sky Go app for Sky Glass ...
08/09/2026
Documentary thriller simulating a Russian attack on UK soil will culminate in a live final episode reuniting the playersTuesday 8 September 2026
Trailer releas...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Jamie Demetriou and Amelia Dimoldenberg to host next t...
08/09/2026
Wuppertal September 8, 2026
Riedel Introduces New OnAir Headset PlatformRiedel Communications today announced the launch of its new OnAir headset platform, a...
08/09/2026
BERLIN, September 8, 2026 - J nger Audio will introduce a major expansion of its flexAI audio processing platform at IBC 2026. The flexAI system adds autonomous...
08/09/2026
New Vendor-Agnostic Broadband Intelligence Fabric Reduces Operational Complexity and Improves Service Quality for Broadband Service Providers SAN JOSE, Calif. -...
08/09/2026
Arvato Systems Brings TI Expertise to the Stage
Panels, workshops, and real-world examples at the TI-SUMMIT 2026
Arvato Systems, a partner of the TI-SUMMIT 2...
08/09/2026
On October 1, Apple Arcade is rolling out a lineup of fun new games for players ...
07/09/2026
Two new full-range, flat-response cabinets introduced
HeadRush have recently introduced a pair of new full-range, flat-response cabinets designed for player...
07/09/2026
Answering questions about AI in game audio
GameSoundCon, the largest professional conference for video game music and sound design, have announced that they...
07/09/2026
New directional headset mic on show at IBC
Just ahead of this week's IBC show, DPA have announced the launch of a new directional headset that's bee...
07/09/2026
We are not building systems to replace human decision-making; we are building systems that execute our decisions at machine speed. The media companies that win ...
07/09/2026
Monday 7 September 2026
Freddie Meredith joins cast of SNL UK ahead of start of Season 2
Freddie Meredith Images
ZIP (3MB)
Saturday Night Live UK announces ...
07/09/2026
Monday 7 September 2026
Sky and NFTS team up to launch new routes into screen careers
Sky has today announced a new apprenticeship programme, with application...
07/09/2026
Monday 7 September 2026
Sky Sports announces most comprehensive NFL coverage to...
07/09/2026
Dolby, MainConcept, Techex and J nger Audio will showcase the industry's first demonstration of Serial Audio Definition Model (S-ADM) in a cloud-based produ...
07/09/2026
dB Broadcast will showcase APIS Hive, its software platform for designing, deploying and managing modern broadcast infrastructures, at IBC 2026.
Developed from...
07/09/2026
552,000 streams on RT Player
The historic fight, which saw Katie Taylor become...
06/09/2026
Recreates Rolands TB-303 & MC-202
BS-203 MacroAcidizer is the first virtual instrument from Born Second, and it offers a recreation of two Roland classics -...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
05/09/2026
MK2 & Bass system control app improved
HEDD Audio have just launched a new and improved version of the control software that pairs with their MK2 and Bass m...
04/09/2026
Media organisations interested in the Media Innovation Europe 3.0 Business Innovation Synergizer (BIS) can now consult a new FAQ document providing additional a...
04/09/2026
Powerful new soft synth announced
Traveler is the first software instrument to be released by KeySolutions Sounds, and it's an ambitious one! Said to co...
04/09/2026
Free virtual instrument range expanded
The latest expansion of e-instruments' free Fragments series introduces a packed-down version of the company'...
04/09/2026
Company recognised for second time
Two years after winning an Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Award for dxRevive Pro, Accentize have been recognised ...
04/09/2026
Bilbao - 3rd September 2026 -AgileTV, a leading provider of end-to-end TV and vi...
04/09/2026
RT ANNOUNCE NEW DRAMA THE MURDER OF MR. MOONLIGHT
BASED ON THE DISAPPEARANCE...
03/09/2026
Yospace will be at IBC from 11th - 14th September (booth 5.C78). For more inform...
03/09/2026
Create musical synth bass sounds from scratch
Anthony Marinelli Music have recently announced the launch of Bass DNA, a new online course that teaches music...
03/09/2026
Most powerful Tonex hardware to date
IK Multimedia's latest release introduces their most advanced Tonex hardware unit to date, combining their AI Machi...
03/09/2026
Upmix & downmix software upgraded
Penteo Audio Plugins have announced that the latest version of their powerful upmix and downmix software is now available....
03/09/2026
With the start of the new apprenticeship year, young talent has once again begun their professional careers at SGL Carbon's sites in Germany. Recently, the ...
03/09/2026
With the industry increasingly embracing hybrid, software-defined production models, Calrec will preview a series of Argo and ImPulseV software enhancements at ...
03/09/2026
Luxembourg, 03 September 2026 - SES, a space solutions company, extends its collaboration with the Peruvian Navy (Marina de Guerra del Per ) to deliver sovereig...
03/09/2026
Thursday 3 September 2026
Jeff Goldblum announced as host of Saturday Night Liv...
03/09/2026
Wuppertal September 3, 2026
Gonshiro Strengthens Collaboration With Riedel, AR...
Nokia names industrial automation startup HaiLa winner of the 2019 Nokia Open Innovation Challenge 
