Supply chain visibility provider Roambee recently acquired Zurich, Switzerland-based Modum, a European pharma, last mile-focused cold chain monitoring player.
This acquisition, which is Roambee’s second, will enable it to expand its cold chain visibility offering from end to end, covering primary, secondary, and last-mile delivery use-cases, according to the company.
“While most visibility service providers claim to deliver real-time visibility, they rely on carrier data,” said Sanjay Sharma, CEO of Roambee. “Insights will never be as granular, real-time, and accurate as sensor-driven insights, which is key to logistics automation. With Modum, Roambee will enable customers to automate their logistics through radically simple access to sensor-driven signals, delivered by our immersive, location-aware platform—not only for pharma, but also for fresh produce, and food and beverages.”
Roambee’s real-time supply chain visibility platform combines firsthand sensor inputs and non-sensor data to enable the delivery of shipments and assets on time, in full, and in top condition. 300-plus customers around the world, including one of the largest U.S.-headquartered COVID-19 vaccine-makers, leverage Roambee’s supply chain signals and intelligence to drive logistics automation, the company added.
Modum, founded in 2016, offers pharma-grade monitoring solutions and has raised $13.5 million since its inception. Modum’s “plug-and-play” solutions work in difficult logistics scenarios requiring high volume and minimal touch, such as last-mile delivery transactions. Its low unit cost of monitoring and adherence to all pharma quality compliance requirements, enables companies like Swiss Post with last-mile delivery visibility.
“Joining forces with Roambee was natural for Modum due to our shared mission to ensure the timely availability of effective, original products in the medical supply chain,” said Modum CEO Simon Dössegger. “Modum will enhance Roambee’s cold-chain footprint with a proven last-mile visibility technology to extend the Roambee product proposition to a unique global end-to-end visibility solution. When combined with Roambee’s strong multimodal shipment monitoring capabilities, we can offer granular visibility all the way from manufacturing to a patient's home at scale.”
Modum has developed solutions to bring transparency and integrity of location and condition data by using methods such as two-factor authentication to associate wireless loggers with shipments and feed data into blockchain networks for authenticity.
Key executives from Modum will take leadership positions at Roambee, bringing Modum’s pharma domain knowledge and last-mile expertise into Roambee’s product strategy.
“With COVID-19 vaccines shipped world-over at an unprecedented scale, makers, movers, governments, NGOs, hospitals, and doctors are placing a high emphasis on the availability, efficacy, and authenticity of vaccines and medicines to save human lives,” Sharma said. “Chain-of-custody integrity and transparency will enable speed and Good Distribution Practice (GDP). With Modum, we will deliver a fully pharma-compliant, real-time visibility solution that includes hardware, cloud software, data, and managed services.”
