Azena, the Munich, Germany-based app store startup for AI-powered and internet-connected cameras that maintained its North American headquarters in Pittsburgh, will shut down external operations to focus on internal developments at the Robert Bosch GmbH group, its parent company.
In an email statement to Pittsburgh Inno, Azena's Head of Marketing Fabio Marti said the startup — initially founded in 2018 as Security and Safety Things GmbH — would cease all active sales and marketing for the Azena Open Camera Platform and that any future development on the platform will be for maintenance and support needs only. Marti said the company will continue to honor its contractual obligations with partners and customers. Azena is still working on many of those details as it works to make a transition plan for its current customers, Marti said.
Azena employs about 100 workers globally and about 10 of those are based out of its Strip District offices. Specific details on how many employees would be affected by the company's change in mission were not disclosed.
"The company aims to offer as many affected associates as possible employment opportunities within the Bosch Group and will also offer severance packages and support in finding new opportunities for employment," Marti said.
Azena first opened its Pittsburgh-based U.S. development hub in 2019. It made a further expansion in the region back in September 2021, teaming up with the Pittsburgh Penguins to use cameras capable of identifying nearly 100 different tasks, from identifying queue lengths at PPG Paints Arena to notifying building entries that could better handle crowd flow.
"Basically you can monitor different entrances simultaneously and then get an alert automatically if one line is way longer than the other and automatically alert staff to go direct people to use a different entrance," Adam Wynne, the director of the Azena Innovation Accelerator facility in the Strip District, said at the time of the Penguins partnership. "That way people can get seated more quickly."
In addition to Pittsburgh and Munich, the startup also maintains offices in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
