Unlocking the IoT’s potential

The power of the Internet of Things (IoT) as a transformative technology comes from the vast trove of data which everything — from the most complex devices to the simplest sensors — feeds back for analysis from an increasingly connected industrial infrastructure.

While consumers are increasingly familiar with the concept of the IoT thanks to the ubiquity of smart mobility (think Uber and Grab) and Apple Pay, it is the application of IoT in industrial and agricultural settings that promises to unleash a huge wave of value creation.

Here are three examples of companies we work with closely, two of which are solidly grounded in terra firma and one of which is literally out of this world…

Aeroqual

Proving once again that when it comes to tech, old dogs can learn new tricks – Aeroqual is a 20-year-old New Zealand business that has actively pivoted into the IoT, having seen the transformational opportunity ahead.

With a core business selling highly accurate air quality monitoring equipment for outdoor environments to global industrial clients, the company saw an opportunity to completely overhaul its value proposition. By building connectivity into all of its products, including handheld devices, the company’s platform provides continuous real-time data back to users on multiple environmental and air quality parameters — and on everything from climate and industrial pollutants to dust and general weather effects. The analysis of the data can be hugely empowering for environmental health and safety professionals.

The solution is already impacting positively on business verticals such as construction remediation, industrial hygiene, and other industrial settings. And there are further opportunities in areas such as remote calibration and control devices, which will reduce servicing and improve accuracy.

Beyond this, Aeroqual is now developing its Unify platform to integrate third-party devices, allowing a distributed network of sensors to come together to provide a large array of data points to decision-makers, whilst in parallel developing its own data analytics platform.

Alesca Life

Agriculture is one of the largest industries on the planet. It touches almost a third of the global economy across its $20 trillion supply chain, extending from the point of production all the way to your plate via any number of intermediate points. 

Historically agriculture has required large areas of land and consumed high volumes of water, while creating tonnes of pollutants. The IoT is now helping to improve efficiencies across the farming value chain by providing sophisticated monitoring capabilities and powerful analytics.

A contemporary example is Alesca Life, which creates modular indoor farming technology, allowing farm operators to grow a range of produce from micro greens and leafy greens to small fruits, vegetables and edible flowers. This plug and play farm environment reduces land and water requirements by 90-95% and eliminates pesticide use.

Alesca’s solution comprises a powerful array of proprietary environmental sensors (everything from CO2 sensors, to temperature, humidity, airflow and visual plant health) which talk directly to its bespoke farm management software —optimised for profitable plant yields across more than 100 crop varieties.

Alesca’s IoT platform will ultimately draw billions of points of anonymised data and images from its global client base, feeding the company’s algorithms to constantly improve the pace of understanding and, ultimately, yield improvements (which are delivered as patched updates via the cloud).

Over time this constant feedback loop should make farms ever more efficient and profitable – and very hard for competitors to catch up with. It’s a variant of the strategy that Tesla has executed so well, turning customer data into insights at a scale that’s difficult to match through R&D alone.

Fleet Space Technologies

Fleet Space is considered a world leader in the development of low-powered small satellites — and is considered a world leader in the field. As of early 2022 it had six nanosats in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) — the first in a proposed network of 140 such devices that Fleet will be manufacturing in its South Australian base. 

Its goal is to build the world’s most advanced low-power satellite network. When that network is established, it intends delivering private, secure wireless IoT connectivity planet-wide, allowing clients to scale up to millions of devices anywhere they are needed, and manage them remotely.

In December last year, the company revealed its plans for Alpha — a new generation of 3D-printed small satellites which it says will integrate the company’s advanced beamforming technology and patented antennas to unlock greater connectivity more quickly and in more locations. This new constellation will be manufactured in the recently announced Fleet Space Hyper Factory.

According to Flavia Tata Nardini, CEO and co-founder of Fleet Space, “It is Fleet Space’s vision that everyone, everywhere, has access to unlimited connectivity, no matter where they are on the globe — in cities, remote regions, on land or navigating the oceans.”

The announcement came a month after the company secured $26.4 million in series B funding (assisted, of course, by us!) which valued the business at $126 million. “This new chapter in our story is led by the development of a new constellation of satellites named Alpha, which will work in harmony with our existing Centauri constellation,” said Nardini, who is quite literally a rocket scientist. “Alpha represents a major step forward and the first time a satellite has been created entirely through 3D printing.”