Startup With Century-Old Technology Plots IPO, New Funding Round

Sigfox’s co-founder is eyeing a listing in 2019 and pondering a pre-IPO round later this year, after reassuring investors about the future of the French startup.

With money from backers including Salesforce.com Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., Sigfox has expanded its network for connected objects, added sizable customers and is on track to become profitable in the fourth quarter, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Ludovic Le Moan said in an interview in Paris.

Unlike many startups claiming breakthroughs, Sigfox’s telecommunications network relies on century-old technology, based on the same principles that allow radio telescopes to pick up radiation from very distant stars, and how submarines signaled to each other during World War I.