ICU VENTURES ANNOUNCES INVESTMENT IN HIVECELL EDGE COMPUTING PLATFORM-AS-A-SERVICE

ICU Ventures, the venture capital arm of ICU, the leading independent asset management and investment advisory firm specialising in the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe, announced it has invested in Hivecell, a New York-based Edge-as-a-Service company that’s redefining the category of edge computing.

In contrast to cloud computing, edge technology allows faster and more reliable on-location high-volume computing power for businesses with multiple locations (eg: oil rigs, solar farms, factories, restaurant and hotel chains, etc).

Powered by a Ukrainian developer team, Hivecell’s platform combines both software and hardware needed for the easy and effective rollout of edge infrastructure. Compared to other edge solutions, Hivecell does not require a dedicated technical crew or special racks for server installation. Hivecell’s compact stackable devices and their easy-to-use remote web interface work seamlessly together making edge computing much more accessible for businesses.

“Hivecell's zero hustle, all-in-one, plug, stack and run computing platform is the type of cutting-edge and customer pain-reducing technology we are looking for. Moreover, their tech allows for minimizing in-person contact while deploying IT-infrastructure which is extremely important in our new socially-distanced reality”, said Roman Nikitov, director of ICU Ventures.

“More and more organizations are looking to realize the full potential of IoT and AI deployments and they are shifting from traditional cloud computing to bring compute power back to the true edge, closest to the source of the data,” said Jeffrey Ricker, co-founder and CEO at Hivecell. “Our solution allows customers to do this with infinite scale and less resources.”

The terms of the investment are not disclosed.

This investment is in line with ICU Ventures strategy of investing in technology companies with Eastern European DNA. Founded in 2018, ICU has joined financing rounds of other renowned startups of a Ukrainian descent such as Petcube, Apostera, 3DLook, Hideez and Respeecher.

"Startups with Ukrainian roots or powered by local developers do not cease to amaze us with their creativity and business savviness. Their success is the best promotion for Ukraine as one of the world's leading IT powerhouses. We are glad to be a part of that journey", said Roman Nikitov.

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ICU Ventures is a Kyiv-based venture capital fund that invests in technology companies with strong ties to Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Focused on helping ambitious founders build global businesses, ICU Ventures makes late seed and series A investments across the tech spectrum.

ICU Ventures is part of the ICU group, an independent asset management firm founded in 2006 by senior investment professionals from ING. With significant allocations to venture capital, private equity, infrastructure & distressed debt, ICU is one of the largest and most diversified asset managers in the CEE region.

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Hivecell is the Edge-as-a-Service company redefining the category of edge computing with easy-to-deploy, future-proofed, technology agnostic solutions empowering companies to scale infinitely and save massive amounts of resources in their management and processing of big data. It takes compute power out of the data center and places it at the true edge, enabling companies to efficiently manage thousands of remote locations without the use of a huge IT team and at 50 percent of the cost of traditional cloud providers. To learn more visit, www.hivecell.com.