Startups in the Internet of Things are really on a roll these days. In February, Cisco invested $1.4 billion in Internet of Things platform provider Jasper. Nokia Growth Partners received $350 million in “Internet of Things Funding.” There are also countless Internet of Things startups that are currently being courted by venture capitalists.
In its latest iot market research report for 2016, Verizon says: “In 2015, consumer focused iot companies received 15 percent more funding than enterprise focused iot companies. Today, enterprise iot startups are leading the way.” According to Verizon Ventures, enterprise iot startups raised 75% more money in 2015 than the consumer market, and are expected to raise twice to three times as much money in 2016!
Ed Ruth, director of Verizon Ventures, said: “A year ago, when I evaluate the Internet of things industry trend is very clear. Unless you are a pure hardware factory, or you want to get profit in the consumer market, there is a very long way to go, we don’t have any body in the hardware industry. So we started to study industrial and enterprise field of Internet of things, the more we realize that: “More and more companies are in need of solutions powered by iot technology, and traditional frameworks are no longer able to solve their immediate challenges.”
Venture Scanner, a company that helps companies with market targeting, customer identification, and trend tracking, has revealed where its current investments in the enterprise iot market are going. (The enterprise iot market is defined as creating interconnected devices for companies and enterprises.)
Corporate offices/white-collar workers and smart cities/buildings are the two main areas for investment, while the emerging and more popular areas are industrial iot and security IOT.
Here’s a look at some of the hottest startups in the Internet of Things space right now, from enterprise to consumer. To keep the list from going on forever, we selected companies alphabetically from the amount of money they announced in mid-2015.
Arrayent
Created in 2002
Location: Redwood City, California
Funding: Total funding was close to $27 million, with a $15 million Series C round in January that included ORIX Ventures.
Focus: Providing an Internet of Things platform to connect consumer products like Whirpool and Liftmaster to their customers via the Internet. Given that the company was founded in 2002, it’s not a typical startup at this point. It showed off an internet-connected aromatherapy machine at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year. Arrayent has also worked with companies ranging from systems integration firms to mobile app developers to processor firms such as Broadcom and TI. Its security Platform, Connect Platform, has very powerful extensibility features, from device to user management to security defense and UI tools.
Filament
Founded in 2012
Reno headquarters:
Funding: Over $6 million. Last August, Series A raised $5 million, led by Bullpen Capital, which included Verizon Ventures.
Area of focus: Remote wireless sensor networks for current industrial infrastructure. Such networks can be used for everything from tracking inventory in vending machines to monitoring worker safety. One of the company’s hardware products is Tap, which wirelessly connects some outdated and easily obsolete devices to rejuvenate them, while Patch can be built into merchants’ products to achieve wireless connectivity. One of the key factors for the success of the company is its mastery of “blockchain technology”, in addition to features such as “end-to-end information encryption services” and “self-generated wireless network capabilities”.
Greenwave Systems
Founded in 2008
Headquarters: Irvine, Calif.
Financing: $75 million in venture capital, including a $45 million Series C round in 2016, led by EDBI, an investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board.
Focus areas: Greenwave’s AXON software and services platform is used in a wide range of internet-of-things centric hosted services solutions. One big customer was Verizon, and Greewave helped with its FiOS Quantum Gateway offering, an ultra-fast Wifi connection. Greenwave unveiled its new Mobile Iot support initiative at Mobile World Congress, saying that hosting providers can handle billions of devices, such as smart products that track people, animals, and cars. The company is headed by Martin Manniche, a former CTO of Cisco’s Consumer Business Group.
Martin Manniche, founder and CEO of Greenwave
Kontakt.io
Founded in 2013
Headquarters: Krakow, Poland
Funding: Raised over $7 million, $5 million of which was in February, led by Credo Ventures.
Areas of focus: Secure, customizable Beacon hardware (indoor and outdoor), software for location-based iot solutions is also being developed. The company supports Blutooth Low Energy, iBeacon, and other interactive technologies. The founders got the idea while helping visually impaired people enjoy music. GE and IBM are currently Kontakt’s major customers.
Lexumo
Founded in 2015
Headquarters: Cambridge, Mass.
Financing Record: A seed financing of 4.89 million DOLLARS has already been Decided,.406 Ventures and Draper among investors.
Focus: Cloud-based search services (with funding from DARPA) that continuously monitor open source code, including vulnerabilities and security risks in iot devices. The company is co-founded by Draper Laboratory, which is known for its digital security technology. You can click here to register and try out its products and services.
PubNub
Founded in 2009
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding: About $40 million, up from $25 million in a Series C round led by Sapphire Ventures last October.
Focus: The company’s cloud-based Data Stream Network and accompanying apis.
The company is able to provide real-time connectivity and effective control over a wide range of applications and iot devices. The company claims to have more than 2,000 customers and partners, including McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and a host of other iot companies focused on niche markets. More than 1.8 trillion real-time transactions take place on the network, supported by more than a dozen data centers. Some believe the company will be able to extend its services to private networks.
Seebo
Founded in 2012
Headquarters: Tel Aviv/ San Francisco
Funding: $14 million, led by Carmel Ventures, which raised $8.5 million in Series A funding in February.
Area of focus: The founders of the company are two brothers, Lior And Liran Akavia. Seebo provides software and connectivity solutions that help companies bring smart, Internet-based products to the market. The market covers a wide range of sectors, from toys to health care, travel to fashion, and offers a wide range of products, from product development tools to analytics to wireless product upgrades.
thethings.iO
Founded in 2013
Headquarters: Barcelona
Financing: RAISED $270,000 through angel financing in July last year.
Focus: “You build cool products, and we’ll connect them to the Internet for you.” Like other start-ups in the Internet of Things industry, TheThings. iO says it can handle interconnectivity, analytics, storage, and all sorts of back office services, all in the cloud. Last year, VentureBeat profiled the company, a startup that essentially wants to be the “Amazon Web Services” of the Internet of Things industry, but will focus more on supporting the Internet of things than AWS. The company is led by Marc Pous, a veteran of the Internet of Things industry.
Veniam
Founded in 2012
Headquarters: Mountain View
Funding: Raised $22 million in Series B funding in February, led by Verizon Ventures and including Cisco Investments, for a total of $27 million.
Area of focus: Mobile networking, such as fleets, or iot systems in ports and airports. It also offers hosting services, including mobile Wifi hotspots and mesh networks, and data analytics for smart city applications and planning.
WigWag
Founded in 2014
Headquarters: Austin
Financing: Seed financing of 3.125 million, led by CSC Venture Capital.
Focus area: Open source platform, focusing on the combination of Internet of Things devices and IP networks, so as to better support smart home and smart companies. WigWag Relay is designed to follow user-created rules that allow WigWag products such as smart light control systems to be truly automated. Customers can also configure a mobile application for in-process control. The product is compatible with various platforms and environments on the market, and even with other protocols such as Zigbee and Bluetooth technology. The company is led by Lifesize Communications, a video-calling company acquired by Logitech.
Creative vision was launched by TECH2IPO