Carl Data receives $225K in funding for further growth of sensor development laboratory

The lab will feature a full set of testing environments allowing the development of breakthrough AI, machine-learning devices.

The i4C Innovation Center, located in Trail, B.C. — Photo courtesy i4C Innovation Center

Carl Data Solutions Inc. is pleased to announce that its fully-owned subsidiary, Astra Smart Systems Corp. ("Astra"), has been awarded CAD$225,000 in funding from the Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) Impact Investment Fund to continue development of a new water and wastewater sensor testing lab facility. The first of its kind in Western Canada, the lab will feature a full set of testing environments allowing the development of breakthrough AI, machine-learning enabled devices. By creating the space, Astra can take a percentage of the water instrumentation market predicted by Global Industry Analysis to reach USD$3.6B by 2020.

Astra CEO, Pilar Portela, is excited to see the expansion of the Trail, B.C. facility. "This will give all our sensor product lines a boost, and will ensure a competitive advantage in the environmental monitoring space." She commented, "Our current facility was originally designed for controlled testing, so with this funding we will be able to evolve it into something cutting-edge for technology development that will also benefit our industry partners."

Smart cities and utilities require technology that helps them improve process efficiency while reducing operational costs. The ability to fine-tune and control the development of sensor technologies that will fully exploit the benefits of machine-learning is not yet readily available. Part of the problem is a lack of instrumentation control and testing facilities. The few university facilities that do exist are primarily focused on the quality of the water and less on the instrumentation control aspects of water and wastewater management.  These facilities are not readily available to private industry to support business development growth.

"The development of this facility not only means a faster go-to-market time for our own unique Industrial IoT devices, but will also generate revenue through rental agreements with others building smart sensors that are complimentary to Carl Data's end-to-end environmental monitoring deployments," said Carl Data CEO and President, Greg Johnston.

About Astra Smart Systems Inc.

Astra is located at the i4C Innovation building, an Industrial IoT lab, production and development facility located in Trail, B.C., Canada. Astra's mandate is to develop E2E solutions for complex industrial challenges.

Astra's facility is at the centre of the Kootenay regions industrial fibre optic hub and sits along the newly established Metal Tech Alley. This corridor of high-technology ventures focused on industrial innovation, right across from the regional Trail Airport (YZZ) and with railway access to the US border at only seven kms away. Astra offers custom-designed infrastructure, equipment, and professional services for IIoT applications. More information can be found at http://astra.earth.

About Carl Data Solutions Inc.

Carl Data Solutions Inc. is an Industrial IoT (IIoT) company focused on providing next generation information collection, storage and analytics solutions for data-centric companies. Building on its recent acquisitions, Carl helps its clients analyze and understand all forms of environmental data through a powerful platform of data collection, monitoring, reporting, and predictive analysis tools.

Carl Data continues to develop applications to work with new cloud-based mass storage services and analytics tools (Big-Data-as-a-Service (BDaaS) to provide scalability for municipalities, utilities and other industrial verticals. These data collection and storage methods allow the company to build smart Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based applications that can collect data from many diverse sources and provide deep insight for decision-making purposes.  More information can be found at www.CarlSolutions.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Greg Johnston
President, Chief Executive Officer, Director
Carl Data Solutions Inc.

Forward Looking Statements Apply: The Canadian Securities Exchange (operated by CNSX Markets Inc.) has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release.

SOURCE Carl Data Solutions Inc.