Sam Kamel, a former senior executive at Irvine-based Ingram Micro Inc., is targeting an industry with big logistical problems in his new role as chief executive at iinside.
The Anaheim-based company is working with Denver International Airport, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Orlando International Airport and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to help ease passenger corridor congestion and security wait lines.
“Airport travel has been going up since the Great Recession,” said Kamel, who took the top post in April after a few years serving on the board. “These airports are getting busier and more crowded. They’re looking for ways to help manage and understand people flow, bottlenecks.”
Kamel replaced Carlos Hernandez-Artigas, who remains on the board.
Iinside sells Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Light Detection and Ranging, or LiDAR sensors, which airports and other busy venues place in areas of concern.
The company also provides subscription data and analysis through the cloud.
LiDAR, a remote sensing method that measures distance by illuminating targets with pulsed laser light, has been indispensable in land surveying, autonomous vehicle technology and geospatial mapping.
“We can see everybody,” Kamel said.
The company has a partnership with Sunnyvale-based LiDAR sensor technology maker Quanergy Systems Inc. and Swiss global IT provider SITA, which specializes in the air transportation sector and generates more than $1 billion in annual sales.
Iinside, which has been based in OC for more than decade, was spun out of WirelessWERX in 2013.
Its predecessor was an early entrant in GPS technology.
Iinside founder and Chairman Houston Staton, a former executive at Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (Nasdaq: COKE), has funded the company as it positions itself for its first round of institutional funding.
Iinside has about 25 employees in Anaheim, where it handles software design and corporate functions, and a few others on the East Coast in sales roles.
“We don’t have any outsourced talent. All the folks are here doing work,” said Kamel, who led corporate development and strategy for five years at Ingram Micro under former Chief Executive Greg Spierkel.
He helped close 17 deals across four continents for the world’s largest technology products distributor with revenue of $46.6 billion last year.
Iinside generates annual revenue of under $10 million.
Here We Go
Within seconds of strapping on a bulky backpack, helmet and goggles, participants are transported to a galaxy far, far away.
The mission is grave and dangerous: Disguised as enemy storm troopers, they must recover imperial intelligence critical to human survival.
A floating pad, suspended hundreds of feet above flowing lava and planetary destruction, takes four-member teams into the heart of enemy territory, where they’re confronted by giant monsters and armies of troopers around every corner.
The only way to escape is to fight their way out with an “E-11 Blaster,” slaying oncoming troopers in the same chaotic fashion as first-person shooter games.
Welcome to Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, a cutting-edge immersive experience by Lucasfilm’s ILMxLABat at The VOID in Downtown Disney that melds virtual reality technology, physical stages and multisensory effects, including touch and smell.
And it comes at a bit of a premium: about $35 per ticket for 30 minutes of fun akin to laser tag but digitally immersive, thanks to Hollywood heavyweight Lucasfilm’s Immersive Entertainment division.
The experience is also running at a Void location in Glendale.
ILMxLAB develops experiences for virtual reality, augmented/mixed reality, real-time cinema, theme parks and developing platforms.
Recent Raises
Sunnyvale-based security software maker CrowdStrike Inc., which maintains an Irvine operation, raised $200 million in a series E round led by General Atlantic, Accel and IVP.
Other backers included March Capital and CapitalG, formerly Google Capital.
The company, which shifted its headquarters last year from OC to Silicon Valley, has raised more than $480 million since it was established in 2011 by former executives of McAfee Inc. and Networks in Motion Inc.
CrowdStrike has a valuation surpassing $3 billion, the company said in a blog post.
Its products are designed to detect, prevent and respond to security threats and attacks. It also provides monitoring, cyberintelligence services and big-data analytics.
The June 19 announcement came the same day Irvine-based Cylance Inc., one of the highest-valued private companies in Orange County, said it raised $120 million in a venture round led by prior investor Blackstone Tactical Opportunities.
Its software fuses machine learning, artificial intelligence algorithms, and the cloud to thwart new and evolving threats and cyberattacks before they hit servers, desktops and virtual desktops.
Cylance, whose valuation exceeds $1 billion, has raised $297 million since its 2012 inception.
