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Top 25 IoT Startups To Watch In
2019
Enterprise & Cloud
Louis Columbus Contributor
26,792 startups are relying on IoT as one of their main technologies to
launch new products and services and support platform-based business
models according to Crunchbase.
78.4% of IoT startups Crunchbase tracks have had two funding rounds or
less with seed, angel and early-stage rounds being the most common.
IoT startup funding reached $16.7B in Q4, 2018, with last years’ funding
levels 94% over 2017 according to Venture Scanner.
By 2020, 50% of IoT spending will be driven by discrete manufacturing,
transportation and logistics, and utilities according to the Boston
Consulting Group.
The most successful IoT startups selling into enterprises excel at orchestrating
analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and real-time monitoring to deliver
exceptional customer experiences. As a group, these top 25 IoT startups are
ISTOCK
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showing early potential at enabling profitable new business models, revitalizing
industries that have experienced single single-digit growth recently. Each of these
startups is taking a unique approach to solving some of the enterprises’ most
challenging problems, and in so doing creating valuable new patents that further
fuel IoT adoption and growth.
The top 25 startups are concentrating on how to make IoT a growth catalyst for
enterprises by designing in AI integration at the platform level. McKinsey found
that 27% of AI early adopters are more likely to report using AI to grow their
market than companies only experimenting with or partially adopting AI. 52% are
more likely to report using it to increase their market share. These and many
other survey results are from McKinsey Global Institute’s Artificial Intelligence:
The Next Digital Frontier? (PDF, 80 pp., no opt-in).
Top 25 IoT Startups To Watch In 2019
The following list of 25 IoT startups are based on an analysis of their ability to
attract new customers, current and projected revenue growth, patents’ current
value and potential, and position in their chosen markets. Presented below are
top 25 IoT startups to watch this year:
1. Armis Security – Armis takes a unique approach to provide visibility
into IoT-enabled devices that are unmanaged across an IT network. The
company’s solutions treat every IoT device as a threat surface, enabling
enterprises to prohibit access to IoT devices and networks based on
security guidelines. Another unique aspect of this company’s approach to
deployment is the ability to use an enterprises’ existing infrastructure for
rapid deployments. Founded in 2015 the company has active customers in
finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and high technology industries. Armis
Security has raised a total of $47M in funding over 3 Their latest funding
was raised on Apr 9, 2018, from a Series B round of $30M from Bain
Capital Ventures and Red Dot Capital Partners. Crunchbase reports Armis
Security has $2.1M in revenue annually and competes with DigiCert,
Skybox Security, and Aruba Networks most often in sales cycles.
2. Crate.io – Crate.io’s open source SQL database features integrated search
for storing and analyzing machine data in real time. The company was
founded in 2013 with the purpose of providing SQL developers with an
open source SQL database to capture, analyze and manage their machine
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learning and AI-based data. CrateDB is an open source distributed
database offering the scalability and performance of NoSQL with the
power and ease of standard SQL. The CrateDB Cloud for Azure IoT is a
turnkey data layer, offered as a hosted cloud service on Azure, enabling
faster development of IoT platforms and data-driven smart factories. Most
CrateDB customers use it for operational analytics workloads, performing
fast time series, geospatial, text search, machine learning queries against
streams of data and data at rest in Industrial IoT, enterprise cybersecurity
& systems monitoring in all industries, smart city and building
infrastructure, Vehicle fleet tracking & management and marketing
analytics. The company has raised $17.9M in funding over 4 rounds.
3. Dragos – Dragos specializes in industrial (ICS/IIoT) cybersecurity. Their
cloud-based Dragos Platform collects, detects, and automates asset
inventorying and visualization, threat detection through threat behavior
analytics, and security operations and incident response workflows.
Dragos also has a Threat Operations Center that provides customers access
to dedicated ICS incident response and threat hunting services as well as
industrial specific intelligence reporting on vulnerabilities, threats, and
community events. Dragos has raised a total of $48.2M in funding over 3
Their latest funding was raised on Nov 14, 2018, from a $37M Series B
round with Canaan Partners.
4. Drayson Technologies – Drayson Technologies provides an IoT
platform startup that is combining wireless charging technology and
machine learning software to create smart sensor networks that deliver
greater energy and cost efficiencies to its customers. Drayson is known for
its expertise in energy-efficient and cost-effective IoT data collection and
analysis, which also contributes to their customers’ ability to reduce the
cost of deploying, owning and running IoT networks.
5. Element Analytics –Element Analytics is rapidly establishing itself as a
startup to watch in the fields of chemicals & refining, manufacturing,
metals & mining, pulp & paper, and upstream oil & gas. Their Element
Platform helps industrial organizations easily and rapidly use industrial
time-series data to improve production efficiency and product quality.
Their platform prepares time-series data, enriches it with analytically
relevant context, creating greater contextual insights. The Element
Analytics platform also enables machine-learning modeling to surface
reliability, productivity, and sustainability insights for operations. Element
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Analytics has raised a total of $22M in funding over 3 Their latest funding
was raised on Jan 8, 2018, from a Series A round. Kleiner Perkins
participated in the first two rounds, funding a total of $7M.
6. FogHorn – FogHorn is a fascinating startup to watch because they excel
at embedding real-time analytics and machine-learning support into size-
and space- constrained commercial and industry IoT application areas.
Realizing that industrial manufacturing and distribution sites often have
unreliable Internet connections if they have any at all, Foghorn has
designed a miniaturized, scalable complex-event processing (CEP)
software engine that is capable of producing analytics in real-time. The
FogHorn Lightning™ platform includes the CEP software engine, enabling
high-performance edge computing, advanced analytics, Machine Learning,
and AI to be implemented highly constrained environments of IIoT. The
company has also created a new class of high-performance programming
language called Vel ™ which transforms any gateway, programmable logic
controller (PLC), industrial PC, or another edge device into an advanced
edge computing system. FogHorn has raised a total of $47.5M in funding
over 4 Their latest funding was raised on Oct 4, 2017, from a Series B
round. The FogHorn Technology Platform is shown below:
HTTPS://WWW.FOGHORN.IO/
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7. GEM – GEM specializes in providing IoT, analytics, and machine learning
platforms and solutions for the manufacturing industry, with a specific
focus on Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and predictive
maintenance. The company has been able to gain customers in energy,
retail, and GEM’s value proposition is based on their ability to increase
manufacturers’ OEE levels through greater real-time insights. The GEM
Precare platform captures operational data and KPIs in real-time including
availability, OEE, performance, quality, MTBF, MTBA, machine statuses,
status reasons, and alarms. The following is an example of the GENM
technology platform:
8. IoTium – This is a fascinating company to track due to their patented
technology that enables secure connections between Network as a Service
(NaaS), legacy onsite systems and cloud-based applications. Customers
include CBRE, Emerson, Intelligent Buildings, Obernel, Rexnord, and
Sunbelt Controls. IoTium is well positioned to gain new customers in
building and industrial automation, oil & gas, manufacturing,
transportation, and smart city industries. IoTium has raised a total of
$22M in funding over 2 rounds with investors GE Ventures, March Capital,
and Juniper Networks. Their latest funding was raised on Sep 19, 2018,
from a Series B round.
9. InfluxData – InfluxData created InfluxDB, their Open Source Platform
specifically designed to analyze metrics and events (time series data) for
DevOps and IoT applications. Whether the data comes from humans,
HTTPS://WWW.GEMALTO.COM/
30/05/2019 Top 25 IoT Startups To Watch In 2019
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sensors, or machines, InfluxData enables developers to build monitoring,
analytics, and IoT applications at scale, delivering measurable business
value quickly. The company reports having 400 customers including Cisco,
eBay, IBM, and InfluxData has raised a total of $59.9M in funding over 4
rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Feb 13, 2018, from a Series C
round.
10. Karamba Security – Karamba Security is focused on solving the security
challenges of connected vehicles. The company offers Electronic Control
Unit (ECU) endpoint security to protect any vehicle with an IoT
connection or IP address. What makes this startup so interesting is how
they are using patented technologies to reduce IoT-based attacks on
vehicles by blocking them autonomously. Internet connectivity or
extensive developer work is not needed to implement Karamba across a
vehicle fleet. Each device can be reset to its factory settings, eliminating
the threat of a vehicle being hacked. Karamba Security has raised a total of
$27M in funding over 4 Their latest funding was raised on Apr 10, 2018,
from a Series B round.
11. MachineMetrics – What makes MachineMetrics an interesting company
to watch is their innovative approach to using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to
discover new insights into manufacturer’s data that improve product
quality and performance. It’s one of the first startups to combine
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and AI and provide a scalable platform
for discrete manufacturers and heavy equipment builders. They’ve also
developed an expertise at edge connectivity in manufacturing
environments that have enabled greater real-time visibility and more
meaningful manufacturing analytics than has been possible in the past.
They’re using AI to drive their prescriptive and predictive alerts.
MachineMetrics has raised a total of $13.4M in funding over 3 Their latest
funding was raised on Dec 11, 2018, from a Series A round. The following is
a Workstation View from the MachineMetrics Production platform:
30/05/2019 Top 25 IoT Startups To Watch In 2019
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12. MagicCube – MagicCube is a device independent IoT security platform
that protects against on-device, cloud, and network attacks. The
MagicCube solution secures digital transactions on any device, in transit,
and in the cloud with the same level of security as device hardware
solutions without the complexity and cost associated with hardware
deployments. MagicCube, Inc. has raised a total of $10.7M in funding over
2 Their latest funding was raised on Aug 8, 2017, from a Series A round.
13. Myriota – What makes Myriota a fascinating company to watch is their
innovative advances in ultra-low-cost satellite Internet of Things (IoT)
connectivity and the alliances they are creating, including on with SpaceX.
Myriota’s nano-satellite was launched into space aboard the SpaceX
Falcon 9 rocket in December 2018. Myriota uses exactEarth’s Low Earth
Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation for its connectivity solutions. Myriota is
a global leader in low-cost satellite IoT connectivity, providing aggregated
sensor reading, environmental sensing, and online tracking and condition
monitoring of remote assets. The company has raised a total of $15M in
funding over 1 round. This was a Series A round raised on Mar 26, 2018.
14. Particle – Particle is an Internet of Things (IoT) device platform that
enables organizations to develop and fine-tune connectivity across
operations using scalable APIs and software development resources.
Particle’s development platform is designed to provide organizations with
the tools they need to prototype IoT solutions to scale quickly and securely.
HTTPS://WWW.MACHINEMETRICS.COM/
30/05/2019 Top 25 IoT Startups To Watch In 2019
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Over 150,000 product builders in more than 170 countries and half of the
Fortune 500 have deployed connected IoT devices powered by Particle.
Particle’s customers include NASA, SpaceX, consumer hot tub
manufacturer Jacuzzi, and Venture-backed by Root Ventures, Spark
Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, and Particle is based in San Francisco, CA
and Shenzhen, China. Particle has raised a total of $35.8M in funding over
7 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Jul 19, 2017, from a Series B
round.
15. Samsara – What makes Samsara noteworthy is their prioritizing how
sensor data can increase the safety and efficiency of physical operations,
contributing to productivity gains while reducing costs. Samsara is
attracting customers from the transportation, logistics, construction, food
production, energy, and manufacturing industries with their ability to
improve the safety, efficiency, and quality of operations. Samsara builds
sensor systems that combine wireless sensors with remote networking and
cloud-based analytics. As of February 2019, the company has over 5,000
customers and has a run rate of 200,000 new devices being added every
year. Samsara has raised a total of $230M in funding over 5 Their latest
funding was raised on Dec 28, 2018, from a Series E round. An example of
the company’s Fleet Summary is shown below:
16. SCADAfence – SCADAfence provides cybersecurity solutions designed to
ensure the operational continuity of industrial (ICS/SCADA) networks.
The startup excels at integrating Industrial IoT, analytics, realtime
monitoring and machine-to-machine connectivity to provide scalable
cybersecurity solutions for production networks. As of February 2019 the
company has customers in the pharmaceutical, chemical, food & beverage
and automotive industries. SCADAFence offers a solution suite that
HTTPS://WWW.SAMSARA.COM/
30/05/2019 Top 25 IoT Startups To Watch In 2019
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includes continuous real-time monitoring of the industrial environment as
well as lightweight tools designed to automate the process of security
assessment. The suite provides visibility of day-to-day operations,
detection of cyber-attacks and forensics tools designed to improve
responsiveness. SCADAfence has raised a total of $10M in funding over 3
Their latest funding was raised on Nov 21, 2017, from a Series A round.
17. SequoiaDB – SequoiaDB develops and provides commercial support for
the open source database SequoiaDB, a document-oriented NewSQL
database that supports JSON transaction processing and SQL query. Their
database can either be a standalone product to interface with applications
providing high performance and horizontally scalable data storage and
processing functions or serve as the frontend of Hadoop and Spark for
both real-time query and data analysis. It is designed to integrate with
Spark, Hadoop/Cloudera. SequoiaDB has raised a total of $40M in funding
over 3 Their latest funding was raised on Sep 19, 2018, from a Series C
round.
18. Sight Machine – This is a fascinating startup to watch, I’ve been tracking
Sight Machine for several years. The company is succeeding at attracting
Fortune 500-level manufacturers as clients by providing them with AI-
driven insights into how they can improve operations. Sight Machine’s AI
and analytics platform, purpose-built for discrete and process
manufacturing, uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and
advanced analytics to help address critical challenges in quality and
productivity throughout the enterprise. The platform is powered by the
industry’s only Plant Digital Twin, which enables real-time visibility and
actionable insights for every machine, line, and plant throughout an
enterprise. Sight Machine is optimized to run on the major cloud platforms
including AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. The
company has raised a total of $30.5M in funding over 5 Their latest
funding was raised on Dec 23, 2017, from a Series B round. An example of
a Sight Machine dashboard is shown below:
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19. Splice Machine –. Splice Machine provides an open-source dual-engine
RDBMS for mixed operational and analytical workloads, powered by
Apache Hadoop® and Apache Spark™. The Splice Machine RDBMS
executes operational workloads on Apache HBase® and analytical
workloads on Apache Spark. Splice Machine is known for its ease of
development and use for IoT-based applications and is successfully offload
operational and analytical workloads from Oracle, Teradata, and Netezza
legacy systems. The company excels at ETL, operational reporting or real-
time applications and use cases. Splice Machine has raised a total of $40M
in funding over 4 Their latest funding was raised on Dec 20, 2017, from
Salesforce Ventures.
20. SWIM.AI – Swim provides edge-based software that executes real-time
analytics and machine learning for enterprises, equipment manufacturers,
smart-cities, and IoT and IIoT businesses. Its software locally processes
and analyzes massive volumes of streaming data from
devices/sensors/equipment where it is created, reducing network volumes,
and generating real-time machine-learning business insights. Swim
deploys its software at the edge to transform data into insights in real-time
and delivers them to businesses, staff, operators, and customers. Swim has
successfully been deployed and is in use in existing equipment and
brownfield environments. In manufacturing customers’ operations Swim
is improving real-time synchronization across multiple systems, reduce
HTTPS://SIGHTMACHINE.COM/
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project implementation costs, optimizing efficiency using machine
learning insights from full resolution edge data and making insights
available via real-time APIs. Swim.ai has raised a total of $10M in funding
over 2 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Jul 17, 2018, from a
Series B round. Swim’s model is shown below:
21. Tulip – Tulip was started by a team of engineers out of the MIT Media
Lab, and the company’s platform is based on over ten years of research in
digital manufacturing. Their self-service technology fills the gap between
rigid back-end manufacturing IT systems and the dynamic operations
taking place on the shop floor. Tulip’s Manufacturing App Platform
combines research in intelligent hardware sensors, computer vision,
assistive user interfaces, and applied machine learning. Tulip was
launched to bring these latest technological developments from the lab to
the factory floor. Today, Tulip’s Manufacturing App Platform is deployed
at dozens of global customers in six countries across multiple industries
including Electronics, Aerospace & Defense, Medical Devices, Footwear,
Pharmaceuticals, and Contract Manufacturing. Tulip Interfaces has raised
a total of $13M in funding over 3
22. Tuya Smart – Tuya Smart is an IoT solution provider for device
manufacturers. Their platform enables fast, agile app development,
allowing smart device manufacturers to bring their product to market
quickly and at competitive prices. Tuya Smart is founded by Jerry Wang, a
founding executive of AliYun, Alibaba’s cloud division, along with a group
HTTPS://WWW.SWIM.AI/
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of veterans from Alibaba, Baidu and Haier Electronics. With extensive
knowledge in cloud computing, software development, and hardware and
supply chain management, Tuya Smart's team is enabling manufacturers
to produce next-generation smart, connected products. Tuya has raised a
total of $200M in funding over 3 Their latest funding was raised on Jul 24,
2018, from a Series C round.
23. Uptake – Uptake Technologies provides a predictive analytics and asset
performance management (APM) platform gaining traction in key
industrial IoT market segments today. The Uptake platform analyzes data
from inside a company and from third party sources to predict and prevent
failures, uncover hidden profits, and discover new opportunities to
healthcare, insurance, locomotives, construction, manufacturing, and
other industries. Uptake Technologies offers a platform for equipment
monitoring, diagnostic troubleshooting, event, and condition prediction,
and task management to improve uptime, streamline operations, and spot
growth opportunities. Key customers include Caterpillar, Progress Rail,
Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and the U.S. Army.
24. VDOO– VDOO has developed a platform of automated solutions to help
IoT makers put the right security in their devices before release and enable
post-deployment security. The end-to-end platform takes the maker from
security analysis to implementation guidance to certification and enables
IoT makers to quickly add the right security to their devices with minimal
resources. VDOO’s solution is built upon a comprehensive taxonomy of
IoT devices and consists of five interrelated and integrated products
including the Security Requirements Generator, Security Gap Analysis,
Actionable Security Plan, Certification, and Post-Deployment Security
Enablement. VDOO has raised a total of $13M in funding over 1 round.
This was a Series A round raised on Jan 17, 2018.
25. Xage Security – Xage provides decentralized security services for
industrial manufacturing and distribution businesses including oil and
gas, transportation, and utilities. The Xage architecture relies on
blockchain to provide a distributed, scalable and highly reliable data store
that prevents hackers from attacking and gaining access through any
threat surface in an organization. Xage takes a unique approach to using
blockchain to thwart hacking attempts at scale, by simultaneously
protecting every active ledger in an organization. Xage Security has raised
30/05/2019 Top 25 IoT Startups To Watch In 2019
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Louis Columbus is an enterprise software strategist with expertise in analytics,
cloud computing, CPQ, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), e-
commerce and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
I am currently serving as Principal, IQMS, part of Dassault Systèmes. Previous positions
include product management at Ingram Cloud, product marketing at iBASEt, Plex Sy...
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a total of $16M in funding over 2 Their latest funding was raised on Dec 28,
2018, from a Series A round.
Louis Columbus Contributor
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