Founded in Lund, Sweden, in 2013, Sensative builds Yggio, the open operational layer, and the sensors that give buildings, utilities and cities live, connected data.
Our vision is a physical world that is as readable and programmable as the digital one, and that stays in the hands of those who own it: buildings, streets, pipes and cables that report on themselves and respond, without one supplier holding the keys. The technology exists. What has been missing is the will to keep it open, and that is what we want to change.
Sensative was built by people who helped shape the mobile revolution. We developed Bluetooth and integrated increasingly complex technology into phones that had to be incredibly small, energy-efficient and packed with radios and antennas. The biggest lesson was what happened when mobile moved from closed products to open platforms. Standard interfaces separated hardware from services, which created freedom of choice and an explosion of innovation.
Today, the physical world is going through the same transformation. Buildings, cities and utilities are becoming digital, but too often through closed solutions. That is why we built Yggio, an open operational layer connecting any technology with any service through standardised interfaces.
Open infrastructure creates freedom. Freedom drives innovation.
In 2021, Frost & Sullivan named Sensative the European Technology Innovation Leader in the Internet of Things sensors industry, one of its Best Practices awards, judged on technology leverage and business impact. The write-up singles out the combination that still defines us: an open platform that hands data ownership back to the customer, and sensors discreet enough to be forgotten.
“Returning data ownership to the customer is a critical differentiator that well-positions the company for success.” — Samantha Fisher, Best Practices Research Analyst, Frost & Sullivan
Think of a building, a city or a utility as a very large computer connected to the physical world. Sensors and systems are the hardware. Applications and AI create the value. Between them you need an operational layer, and just as with a modern computer, you should be free to add new hardware, connect new services and change suppliers without rebuilding everything underneath.
That layer did not exist for the physical world, and the platforms on offer all wanted to own it. So we built Yggio on one idea: digitalisation should create freedom, not new dependencies.
It began in 2014 as “an Android in the cloud” for apartment buildings: one shared digital-services platform for everyone around a property: tenants, the property company, technicians and home-care staff. It was developed with Sweden’s public housing sector, Sveriges Allmännytta, and piloted with Växjöbostäder and Helsingborgshem. The same architecture then grew from the building to the city: streets, transport, energy and critical infrastructure.
The name comes from Yggdrasil, the world tree of Norse mythology that holds the nine worlds together. The ending is borrowed from I/O, input and output, which is what a platform for the physical world does all day: readings in from sensors, commands out to systems. Read it as a one and a zero, if you like; that works too. For a team that spent its earlier career on Bluetooth, named after the Viking king Harald Bluetooth, a Norse name felt like coming home.
The tree is a good picture of what Yggio is. In the crown live the gods: the applications, the dashboards and the AI that make decisions. The trunk carries everything between crown and ground. And the roots reach down to three wells: Urðarbrunnr, the well of fate, where the gods hold their council; Mímisbrunnr, Mímir’s well of wisdom and knowledge; and Hvergelmir, the spring from which the rivers flow. Data, knowledge and the things that happen in the world: a platform needs all three.
Up and down the trunk runs Ratatosk, the squirrel who carries messages between the eagle in the crown and the dragon at the roots. Our context broker, the part of Yggio that passes every message between devices and services, is called Ratatosk. Of course it is.
Digitising the physical world requires sensors that can be deployed at scale without becoming a maintenance problem.
Sensative sensors are designed to blend into their environment, run for years on battery and adapt to different use cases through extensive configuration. Built-in diagnostics continuously monitor sensor health and performance, helping ensure reliable, high-quality data over the lifetime of the installation.
From ultra-thin Strips and discreet Square sensors to radar and specialised sensing, the principle is the same:
Small footprint. Long battery life. Highly configurable. Built for reliable data.
We bring decades of experience from the telecom and IT industries, with a startup’s drive, run by people who’ve built new technology and new markets before.
20+ years in senior management and executive roles across the tech industry.
20+ years in the mobile phone industry in senior product development roles, with several patents related to Bluetooth.
Leads product for Yggio and the sensor portfolio. Background in mobile product development at Sony Mobile; Lund University.
Leads the development and project management of Yggio since 2020. Before that 18 years at Sony Mobile, most recently as Head of Software in Taipei and Chennai. Lund University (LTH).
20+ years in executive, sales, and marketing roles across the tech industry.
Heads the SeatSense business area, the seat-occupancy solution now fitted across LNER’s fleet. Background in sales and leadership; University of Gothenburg.
10 years in finance and accounting; also CEO and co-founder of Quality Consulting AB.
20+ years in senior sourcing and supply chain roles across the telecoms industry.
Runs people and operations at Sensative, and is an enthusiast for structure, streamlined processes and clear communication. Malmö University.
