Premier Farnell, the Development Distributor and sponsor of Startupbootcamp IoT: connected devices, has shared its ‘ones to watch’ following the culmination of the three-month Accelerator Programme at the Startupbootcamp IoT demo day on 24th January 2018.
Nine start-ups joined the accelerator in December 2017 and have since been working with a range of mentors to develop their ideas and bring their products to market. At the Accelerator’s demo day, the start-ups pitched for second round funding, collectively looking for £4.1m to support the next stage of their development.
The 2017 cohort has seen a dramatic shift towards industrial IoT, with eight of the nine start-ups focusing on addressing issues in business, industry, and farming rather than more traditional smart home devices.
Premier Farnell’s top picks from the 2018 cohort address key problems in the market have broad application and growing market opportunities:
- HUDlogcreated a retrofit head up display unit to help correct expensive and dangerous commercial driving behavior in real-time, whilst reducing fleet managers operational costs – both fuel and insurance.
- Thing Bloxprovide OEMs and developers with a complete communication module that is 100% secure. Simply plug ThingBlox into a connected device and each one will have secure wireless connectivity hardware-based authentication and automatic mass provisioning.
Steve Carr, Global Head of Marketing at Premier Farnell said: “Having worked with these start-ups for three months, it makes me very proud to see them present their ideas at the demo day and share the successes they have had to date. The Internet of Things continues to be a market-changing phenomenon. The opportunity it presents, combined with greater access to hardware and software support through Startupbootcamp and Premier Farnell creates a unique opportunity for start-ups. It is easy to see how the next big idea, that changes the way we live and work, will not come from an established technology business. All the start-ups who participated in the accelerator in 2017 designed products that improve lives, improve our environment or save resources. They should be very proud of what they have achieved so far and I am very excited about what will come next.”
Other start-ups who presented on the day include:
- Odyssey Sensors and Mothive – developing solutions for farming
- id, Sonodot and Squad robotics – tracking people and assets for greater efficiency
- Storybot – screen free technology taking children on adventures
- Internet of Trees – developing early warning solutions to minimise the impact of forest fires.
