Startup of the month: Meshmerize

Today, we have 11 questions for Sreekrishna Pandi, CEO and co-founder of Meshmerize.

To start things off, can you give us a brief company description of Meshmerize?

Meshmerize is all about creating connections, but not just any connections – we’re in the business of connecting moving entities through the innovative use of mesh networks. We specialize in constructing robust, high-speed mesh networks tailored specifically to cater to dynamic machines such as industrial robots, drones, and even vehicles. Pioneering as the first software-based mesh product in the market, we uniquely empower off-the-shelf commercial products with our advanced mesh capabilities.

Tell us a bit about the founding story of Meshmerize, when and how was it born?

The roots of Meshmerize trace back to the early days of 2020 as a startup. However, the conceptualization, prototyping, and technical groundwork had already been laid as far back as 2016, within the research confines of the Technical University of Dresden. Our driving force was to bridge the chasm between the intrinsic connectivity demands of various industries and the solutions offered by 5G-like cellular networks. In our quest to tackle this, we devised a pioneering distributed organic-multipath mesh networking solution. This solution leverages the existing Wi-Fi hardware of robots and access points, constructing a highly resilient mesh network at a fraction (nearly one-tenth) of the cost of a comprehensive 5G network. This ingenuity eventually gave birth to what is known today as Meshmerize.

Who are the people behind Meshmerize? Tell us a bit more about yourselfs.

The folks driving Meshmerize forward are myself, Sreekrishna Pandi (acting as the CEO), along with Frank Gabriel (our tech guru and CTO), and Simon Wunderlich (our strategic CPO). We all crossed paths at TU Dresden when we were knee-deep in 5G-related research, collaborating with big names in the industry like Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, and Nokia. Simon’s also got quite the résumé — he co-authored and is the maintainer of Batman-adv, one of the most popular mesh networks out there, with over 15 years of getting his hands dirty in the mesh network industry.

Which specific problem does Meshmerize solve for its customers?

Meshmerize caters to a diverse range of sectors such as intralogistics, mining, and public safety. Despite the varying specifics, all these sectors share a common pain point – the need for reliable connectivity for their mobile machinery. Take the realm of mobile robotics as an instance; unexpected downtime owing to connectivity issues could translate into a hefty loss of up to 20,000 EUR per hour, factoring in fines and lost opportunities. Here’s where Meshmerize steps in, guaranteeing that the robots maintain uninterrupted connectivity, regardless of their motion or environmental conditions.

What’s the secret sauce behind your solution?

Meshmerize doesn’t rely on just one secret sauce; instead, it’s a flavorful blend of several key ingredients! Two core aspects set our mesh apart:

Firstly, our organic multipath routing: Traditional WiFi systems are hampered by the fact that each robot-to-access-point link is a single point of failure. In contrast, Meshmerize maximizes every possible link, even those between the robots themselves, using them redundantly for routing to ensure uninterrupted roaming.

Secondly, we’re the only game in town when it comes to a hardware-independent mesh product: Meshmerize enables any commercial or industrial hardware to partake in mesh networking, whereas other mesh products are tied to specific hardware setups.

Who are the target customers for Meshmerize?

Broadly, if you’ve got mobile robots that need to maintain a steady connection, then we’re looking at you as a potential customer. Today, Meshmerize finds its primary application within the intralogistics sector. Our target customers in this space are those who provide Material Handling Systems (MHS) or Automatic Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS). Want a real-world example of Meshmerize in action? Check out this technical blog post detailing one of our recent deployments.

Can you quickly walk us through a typical onboarding process? What is needed from the customer’s side in order to start with Meshmerize and who are the Stakeholders in an implementation?

The onboarding journey with Meshmerize, given its universal applicability across various industrial scenarios, can differ depending on the type of hardware the mesh is installed on. Customers have the flexibility to either use their existing hardware or purchase from our list of supported ones that come with Meshmerize pre-installed.

Once they’ve got their hardware in place, they just need to purchase and activate the license on their devices. Then, with the help of our cloud network management tool, Hive, customers can easily deploy the network on their site, priming their robots to start roaming about freely and reliably. So, in essence, we just need customers to choose their preferred hardware and manage the implementation via Hive, making the onboarding process a breeze.

How do you measure success when a customer uses your platform? What are the most important KPIs and what is the business case for the customer?

At Meshmerize, our measures of success revolve around two primary key performance indicators:

Network Reliability and Resilience: We quantify this in terms of the uptime of connectivity, which involves the percentage of network packets delivered within the required latency threshold. For instance, if we refer to our technical whitepaper, one could see a demonstrable improvement in packet delivery under stringent latency requirements.

Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for our customers: Many other mesh solutions in the marketplace hinge their operation on selling hardware which can be prohibitively expensive – sometimes to the tune of around 2000 euros per unit. In stark contrast, Meshmerize infuses mesh capabilities into traditional industrial hardware, which are not only more cost-effective but are also widely utilized in the field already. This approach significantly reduces the customer’s capital expenditure while enhancing their operational capabilities.

Will mesh networks be the technological standard for connectivity between AMRs in a few years from now? And if so, why will Meshmerize be the solution provider instead of hardware OEMs themselves?

We do believe that mesh networks will be the go-to for AMR connectivity in the near future, thanks to their role in 6G technology discussions. What makes Meshmerize a strong player in this space is our software-based solution. Unlike hardware-specific networks, our software-based mesh network works across different devices from various vendors. This flexibility could make Meshmerize a universal standard that hardware manufacturers can easily adopt.

Are there use cases outside of intralogistics or mining for Meshmerize? Could there be use cases in autonomous driving?

Without a doubt, the scope of Meshmerize extends beyond intralogistics and mining. We’re just scratching the surface with these industries. As we venture into other sectors like autonomous farming, where stable network connectivity is often challenging in remote areas, Meshmerize steps in to facilitate continuous operations of self-driving tractors, playing a pivotal role in the future of autonomous farming.

Looking ahead, autonomous driving is undoubtedly on our horizon. Meshmerize’s potential isn’t limited to connecting vehicles to navigational systems and their in-built sensors, but also enabling vehicle-to-vehicle communication. This has the potential to significantly enhance safety measures within the automotive industry, truly revolutionizing the way we view transportation.

What else would you like to tell our readers?

I would like to share some exciting news with our readers. Recently, we’ve experienced sharp momentum with key clients in the intralogistics sector. This has positioned us perfectly to amplify our sales and outreach within this industry. To fuel this growth, we’re currently in the process of raising our seed round. For investors interested in being part of an innovative solution that’s reshaping the future of network connectivity, we’re eager to start a conversation and explore the possibilities together. We believe Meshmerize is set to revolutionize the way moving machines connect and interact, and we’re excited to invite others on this journey with us.