Although IoT Insider’s sister publication Startups Magazine is arguably more of an authority on exciting tech startups looking to scale up, the IoT space is not short of the kind of innovation and out-of-the-box thinking that startups have in droves.
Sometimes defining a startup can be tricky and remains the big ticket question. Conventional wisdom dictates the length of the time that a company has been operating for, but other pieces of information can help to piece together if a company fits this definition; such as the size of the company and the number of its employees. Some startups never scale up and get off the ground. They remain in their infancy, which may not be the worst case scenario, but definitely isn’t the best situation per se.
With this in mind, IoT Insider picked out five startups to keep an eye out for, as they blaze their own trail and create impactful technology.
Blecon
Cambridge-based startup Blecon recently launched its new IoT connectivity solution harnessing Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) last month, which allows physical devices to communicate with Cloud applications using Bluetooth LE chips.
In an interview with IoT Insider, Simon Ford, Co-Founder of Blecon said: “Bluetooth is embedded in every phone, every laptop, every table, and it can be turned on as a hotspot in our network. No other technology can do that. It’s like a superpower that Bluetooth gives us but something we’re exploiting.”
More recently, Blecon won the Best of Sensors Award 2024 for connectivity at Sensors Coverage which ran from 24-26 June in California, the US.
Wiliot
Perhaps no company understands the importance of intelligence in relation to the global supply chain than Wiliot, who previously spoke to IoT Insider on IoT Unplugged about ambient IoT technology poised to bridge the digital divide.
Covering the industries of retail, grocery and post and parcel, Wiliot’s IOT Pixels are low-cost tags powered by radio frequency energy and can be fixed to items ranging from clothing to fruit to collect data.
Last month it announced a new food safety initiative designed to create transparent and traceable supply chains by collaborating with iFoodS and Trustwell to integrate its ambient IoT data into their platforms.
Memfault
According to the company website, the idea for Memfault, which offers an embedded observability platform, was conceived while working at the embedded software team on Pebble and customers reported the time-consuming nature of investigating bugs.
More recently, Memfault revealed its Product Analytics, targeted at delivering insights into the performance and usage of IoT devices.
On IoT Unplugged, Memfault’s Founder and CEO François Baldassari spoke to IoT Insider about IoT device quality management and what to watch out for.
Infraspeak
Founded in 2015 by CTO Luis Martins and CEO Felipe Ávila da Costa, Infraspeak offers a centralised Intelligence Maintenance Management Platform (IMMP) for companies looking to streamline their operations.
In 2021 the company raised €10 million in Series A funding and in 2023, it raised €17.5 million in what was an extension of its Series A funding round, which it said would have a “massive” impact on its operations from its product to team and customers, in a blog post announcing the completion.
Cavli Wireless
Cavli Wireless started life as an IoT chip startup and includes smart IoT modules in its offerings with applications ranging from smart cities to energy and utilities and smart transportation and logistics.
Last year, it succeeded in raising $10 million in its Series A funding and more recently, it was recognised as the Best IoT Device Management Platform by Juniper Research.
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