Top IoT Investors Shaping the Future of Internet of Things

IoT has become more like a reality. It is continuously speeding. So is the number of IoT investors and IoT Venture Funding. IoT has gained a mammoth size- something which we never saw before! It has become the largest device market in the world. IoT Investing data is changing every quarter surprisingly! Huge wave has been generated around it. Winds of interest in IoT are blowing from all circles. Much in line, internet of things investment opportunities is also brimming with possibilities everywhere. IoT is drawing huge attention from the Venture Capitalists & internet of things investors- both traditional and emerging. Huge investments by internet of things venture capital in IoT based Startups has turned the game even more interesting. Seeing the kind of euphoria that has been build up around it, a huge number of corporate high profile investors are standing in line with their fingers up, to bet their huge investments in the IoT.

As per CBInsights– a leading market research firm- funding in IoT in 2016 is at its peak now. If we will go further deep into the data and take into account IoT Investments 2015, then we will find that IoT Startups has attracted unbelievable kind of investments in the last one year from Internet of things Venture Capital Funds. They have drawn $836 Million in just one quarter of 2016. Whereas it was only $680 million in the same quarter a year ago!  In the last 6 months, more than top 8 IoT Startups have garnered huge money from the top IoT Investors such as Intel, Qualcomm, Foundry and others.

Lets us have a deep insight into the names of top IoT Investors of 2016. Top 10 most active IoT Investors goes as follows:

LIST OF TOP 10 MOST ACTIVE IoT INVESTORS TURNING VISION INTO REALITY IN 2016!

Over the last 5 years, internet of things venture capital funding has almost doubled. Out of Top IoT Investors, Intel Capital is the most active one- making huge investments in IoT Startups. In Mar 2016, it entered into Series C Round with Stratoscale. Total funding amount was $69 million. Stratoscale is a promising cloud infrastructure company. Intel Capital is one of the most active IoT Investors in Cyber Security, Hardware, internet of things, storage and wearables.

Thalmic Labs– a Canada- based wearable IoT Company has recently announced that it has entered into Series B funding Round from Intel. In fact it is one of the largest venture capital deals in Canadian history. On September 20^th 2016- KDS– A Beijing based magnetic and electro- optical architecture solutions providing IoT Company announced that it has completed new round of funding from Intel Capital. Further WSC Sports has recently entered into Intel Capital’s portfolio. In 2015 Intel Capital directed its investments in Body Labs. Body Labs is a startup company which has come out with 3D Body Scanning Sensors. Other companies which attracted big Internet of things investments from Intel Capital are Bocom Intelligent Network Technologies, SigFox.

Now comes the name of Qualcomm Ventures in the list of Top IoT Investors. Nowadays, it is making huge IoT Investments in technology startups. Areas of its Internet of things investments are quite BIG- mobile, healthcare, energy, e-commerce, digital media, consumer internet and many more to come in the line! It’s a sister concern of Qualcomm Inc. Founded in 2000, it’s a research and investment company. Till yet it has invested in more than 160 companies.

For Intel and Qualcomm IoT appears to be greener pastures for them as their core business activity is severely inclined towards designing and manufacturing of smaller chips. That’s the reason why both Intel and Qualcomm consider IoT startups as strategic assets. Recently it has bet its huge money on drone manufacturer- 3D Robotics and Whistle Labs. Whistle Labs is a San Francisco- California based company that manufactures GPS Pet Tracer for pet owners. With it you can locate your pet from anywhere and keep a watch on their routine activities through mobile phones. Moreover companies like Panoramic Power, Streetline, Placemeter have also attracted good investments from Qualcomm.

Founded in 2009 Andreeseen Horowitz is Venture Capital Firm based in Silicon Valley. Marc Andreessen & Horowitz are the two co-founders of it. Recently on a blog post published on Andreessen Horowitz’s site, there are some specific areas of interest which draws their investment attention. List of their Top IoT investments areas are :

• Virtual Reality
• Sensorification of the Enterprise
• Machine Learning + Big Data
• The Full-Stack Startup
• Containers
• Security
• Online Marketplaces
• Bitcoin (and Blockchain)‎
• Cloud-Client Computing
• Digital Health
• Online Video
• Crowdfunding
• Insurance
• Internet of Things
• DevOps
• ‘Failure’

In some recent times drone industry is one such area into which Andreessen Horowitz is putting their money. It is investing in Airware- a San Fransisco based startup which develops operating system for commercial drones. It is also investing in Skydio- which manufactures drone cameras. Skydio has been successful in coming out with drones that have some kind of unique camera hardware installed with it that has the capacity to follow any human or object. Interesting thing is that it can dynamically avoid any obstacles that come in its path. Halo Neuroscience is another company on which Andreessen Horowitz has betted its money. Halo Neuroscience comprises of a team of doctors, neuroscientists, engineers and designers which makes neuro-technology headset.

Is another one from the group of top IoT investors which was visibly active during the Q1 of 2016. It made big investments in 4 IoT companies in that quarter. It is investing in companies dealing in big data, Enterprise digital, Life Sciences & Digital Health, and Consumer Digital.  Ring, Motive, Enlightened and Airware, are the 4 companies into which KPCB has made huge IoT Investments in Q1 of 2016. DJI & Dropcam are two other important names in its portfolio list. DJI is in consumer drone technology and Dropcam is in Wifi –enabled security vedio camera- which provides live streaming of data.

Is a private equity & Venture capital Firm, headquartered in California -United States. It was founded by Vinod Khosla in 2004. It is primarily focused on seed, environment friendly startups companies in internet of things, computing, mobile, silicon and clean technology. Vinod Khosla is also a co-founder of Sun- Microsystems. Much recently on 13 Oct 2016- it has invested in the following companies:

• Iora Health-
• Jawbone- Nowadays Khosla Ventures can be seen much active in Jawbone. Jawbone is a fitness wearable technology
• Misfit- is a wearable activity tracker.
• AliveCor- is a device and application platform which turns any mobile into a clinical quality Electrocardiogram.
• Canary Connect- has a complete security system device- which renders intelligent alerts on user’s phone along with high definition vedio.
• Blue River Technology- has made some intelligent applications for agricultural
• Arista Networks- has cloud networking solutions for high end computing. There are many other smart companies like these in the portfolio of Khosla Ventures.

Is a Colorada- based venture capital firm doing several rounds of investments in IoT startup companies. It was founded in June 2006 by Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson, Seth Levine & Ryan McIntire. Its recent investment activity was structured in Oblong Industries. It is known for its early investments in Fitbit and Zynga. It has placed multiple bets on IoT related hardware companies- such as

• Little Bits- is a New-York startup which provides a platform of ready-to-use electronic building blocks for creating inventions of any size
• Marker Bot- manufactures desktop 3D printers- got acquired in 2013 by Stratasys Ltd at a valuation of $403 Million deal.
• Sphero- makes connected toys, 3D Robotics. It also makes commercial drones aerial vehicles.

It is the investment arm of Industrial Giant- General Electric Inc. providing financial oxygen to the best ideas in the fields of software, energy, healthcare and advanced manufacturing. Some recent month’s data reveals that General Electric IoT investments is particularly concentrated in analytics startups, robotics, advanced manufacturing, plus in companies which are working in automation areas. Currently GE Ventures has more than 61 startups in its portfolio. List of some companies into which General Electric Internet of things investments is active these days;

• io – is a Seattle based tech based startup company which has created an enthusiastic scene among the Linux developers by providing a platform through which they can update the software in Internet of things devices very easily.
• Fog Horn Systems- is a leading software company based in Mountain View, United States which is in fog computing. Fog computing is especially helpful for industrial and commercial internet of Things (IoT) Applications. Along with March Capital, GE Ventures has invested $12 in Series A round funding In FogHorn in July 2016.
• Rain Dance Technogies – is a company working in the field of life sciences which is making complex genetics simple. It has come out with a unique micro droplet based solution which is very helpful in the initial diagnosis of cancer and other life threatening diseases. With its solutions, doctors can finds tumors and cancer cells with a simple prick. Airware, Stem and Ayasdi are some other IoT Companies into which GE Ventures has put its money.

Is a venture capital firm based in Maryland America. It is another big name in the list of top IoT Investors of the world. Its areas of strategic investment interest are companies making low power semi conductors and those which provide machine learning applications. Further its investments are focused on IoT startups in information technology, medical & life sciences. Its active portfolio includes more than 300 flourishing names from the field of technology and life sciences.

One of its recent IoT Investments is in PsiKick. It raised $16.5 Million series B round funding from NEA along with Osage University partners. PsiKick is a startup company which in the business of developing wireless sensors used in internet of things devices and IoT Ecosystem. Unique thing about such sensors is that they require very, very low power and work without batteries. Some other actives names in its portfolio are Qadium, Tamr and illusive networks. Illusive Networks is a cyber Security Company.

Was started in 2005 with a clear vision on their mind. To invest in promising startups. It mostly undertakes seed stage or series A investments. Nowadays it is concentrating more on sensors, devices, media, mobile, e-commerce and infrastructure. It is also investing in startups which are into wearable devices business –like Ring and Fitfit. Fitbit is a very popular fitness and activity trackers type of internet of things device. Whereas Ring is a vedio based smart IoT Application, which facilitates to answer your door bells from anywhere through your smart phone. You can’t miss any of your visitors once Ring enters into your Smartphone through your fingers! Some of True Ventures recent IoT Investments are in:

• Brava-it’s an IoT based home automation company which brings technology and design together to give you a wonderful life experience. Starting from kitchen till the other end of your home, it covers everything.
• io- is a SaaS product that measures and handles the performance of audio and WebRTC -based video calls in your web application in real time. It’s a monitoring and management service based on cloud.
• Baffle- provides service solution for data security. It’s a Silicon Valley based IoT startup with a mission to keep data secured both in public as well private clouds.

Some other currents IoT Investments of True Ventures are in Deep Genomics, Every wear Games.

Nowadays internet of things appears to be the hottest destination point for the BIG BLUE BOYS! Cisco has also joined in that bandwagon. Millions and millions of investments are coming into internet of things every year.  In fact you will be shocked to know that the first quarter of 2016 witnessed biggest ever funding of $846 million!

Cisco Investments is one among the leading global IoT Investors. From last 5 years its name is continuously there in the list of Top IoT Investors of the world. There’s a very strong reason why BIG NAMES like Intel, Qualcomm, Google and Cisco are pumping huge amount of money in internet of things; because they want to build their own Ecosystem.

Similar to other Top Global IoT Investors, Cisco is also focused much on startups. Icontrol Networks and Control4 are some of the actives names to occupy their place in Cisco Investments portfolio. Both are into home automation business?

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