Sigscan accelerates in the indoor geolocation market – Le Journal des Entreprises
The software publisher Sigscan (10 employees, turnover not disclosed), based in Ramonville-Saint-Agne (Haute-Garonne), which provides geolocation solutions inside buildings in the health and aeronautics industry, is preparing to raise funds for a confidential amount, intended to accelerate its deployment in Europe. “We have two dedicated interfaces, Sigscan Healthcare and Sigscan Industry, but 90% of our software is the same, explains Fabien Marotte, its manager. Last year, we multiplied our turnover by ten and we signed with 15 clients, four of which were large in industry. We also work with 6 hospitals, the largest of which is Bordeaux University Hospital, for which we have a 5-year development plan.”
Division of costs by five
In 2017, this computer engineer, who worked for Texas Instrument and Intel, had identified that aeronautics manufacturers “wasted a lot of time looking for parts in their factory, sometimes causing delays in delivery to Airbus.” “That’s how I came up with the idea of geolocation inside buildings,” he says. Existing solutions were excessively expensive and complex. However, I thought it was possible to divide the costs by two or three. Today, we even managed to divide them by five.” He then financed the R&D of his product from his own funds from 2018, via his consulting company Pyrénées Software, and launched its marketing in January 2020. But the Covid stopped him dead. At the end of 2020, its business engineer Laure Laforgue then identified another problem encountered, this time by hospitals. “Medical equipment is constantly moving around the establishments and they end up buying 30% more equipment just to ensure that their staff can access it as soon as they need it,” continues Fabien Marotte. Since aeronautics was not yet recovering, this prompted me to change our business strategy and move towards the health sector.”
Hospital logistics
In June 2021, he therefore created the company Sigscan, in which business angels invest, and landed his first client, the Clinique Pasteur in Toulouse. According to the leader, the solution offered by Sigscan is simple and easy to install. “Tags of 2.5 cm by 1.5 cm are attached to each medical device, describes Fabien Marotte. Inside there is a battery and an electronic circuit. This tag emits a signal every 5 seconds and the receivers, which are Bluetooth ears, transmit it, over a wifi connection or over the classic wired network, to our software, where the position calculations are made. This allows us to geolocate in real time the location of the equipment in the hospital. Nurses and healthcare managers can spot it from an interface that maps the locations.” The Sigscan solutions, which the company is currently deploying at the Mayotte hospital center, also make it possible to prevent disoriented patients from running away, on whose wrists an ad hoc bracelet is installed, as at the Ambroise Paré hospital in Boulogne-Billancourt. (Hauts-de-Seine), or to facilitate hospital logistics (meals, lingerie, medication). Sigscan will be present at SantExpo, the meeting place for the health and medico-social sectors, which will take place from May 23 to 25, 2023 in Paris.
