Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups working on Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we want to share our insights with you. This time, you will discover 5 promising smart object solutions.
Heat Map: 5 Top Emerging Smart Object Solutions
Using our StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 1.379.000+ startups & scaleups, we looked at innovation in the field of IoT. For this research, we identified 357 relevant solutions and picked 5 to showcase below. These companies were chosen based on a data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, and relevance of technology, among others. Depending on your specific criteria, the top picks might look entirely different.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 5 startups & scaleups developing smart objects, also known as nearables. Moreover, the Heat Map reveals regions that observe a high startup activity and illustrates the geographic distribution of all 357 companies we analyzed for this specific topic.
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Ovon Group – Smart Radiator Valve
Nearables, also known as smart objects or smart connected devices, incorporate IoT sensors to provide alerts and relevant information. Such IoT devices apply to a growing number of consumer, business, workplace, and industrial applications. Moreover, smart objects integrate with handheld electronics such as tablets and smartphones. The integration enables businesses and users to better understand and engage with their target groups.
British startup Ovon Group designs and develops a smart radiator valve to allow greater home environment control for users. The smart object utilizes the Thread wireless protocol, a low-power mesh network for IoT products, to enable users to control multiple valves with a single app. Further, the startup’s patent-pending thermal recovery system aims to eliminate the need for replacing batteries in these smart devices. Ovon also offers tailored IoT and smart home device hardware, software, manufacturing, and design solutions.
Sensoan – IoT Product Development
The core components of nearables include IoT sensors and connectivity solutions such as Bluetooth or near-field communication (NFC), among others. However, businesses looking to use such smart beacons require extensive subject-matter knowledge of hardware, software, and connectivity. Smart device startups are responding to this need by offering comprehensive product development solutions to remove the obstacles to implementing nearables.
Sensoan is a Finnish startup building a complete IoT service solution that includes an entire pipeline from data-collecting sensors to the presentation of data with a cloud- or web-based interface. To this end, Sensoan offers engineering projects to business partners to develop hardware, firmware, and applications for smart wireless sensor products and smart environments. Also, the startup analyzes sensor data by integrating them with off-the-shelf cloud services.
iSignal – Smart Proximity Beacons
Increasingly, public spaces and retail outlets look to attract more customers by engaging with them in new ways. Nearables enable engrossing with potential customers as they come within the proximity of a shop or at any configured physical space. Smart interconnected devices utilize machine-to-machine communication to enhance customer experiences. For example, retailers can send discount alerts as shoppers cross a particular section. With numerous and even yet unknown applications, startups are working to connect the digital and physical worlds.
iSignal is a US-based startup currently developing a sensor-based analytics and engagement platform and an operating system for interacting with physical locations using smartphones, displays, and screens. iSignal offers iBeacon and Eddystone packets, smart connected devices for location, proximity, stickers, and videos. The startup utilizes various connectivity solutions in their devices, such as Bluetooth low energy transmitters, programmable NFC, WiFi, telemetry, and mesh networking. iSignal’s nearables are suitable for use in shopping malls, airports, hospitality facilities, hospitals, and museums, among others.
Actinius – IoT Development Hardware
Generally, microcontrollers and wireless processing chips power smart objects. The design and manufacture of efficient microelectronic devices require experts, especially for building complex and integrated IoT solutions. Emerging Internet-of-Things companies are building ready-to-use hardware products that easily resonate with business requirements.
Actinius is a Dutch startup offering smart or connected device product development solutions. The startup’s in-house cellular IoT board, Icarus, is built around Nordic Semi’s nRF9160 modem. It combines long-term evolution for machines (LTE-M), narrowband (NB)-IoT, a global positioning system (GPS), accelerometer, and a lithium-polymer (LiPo) charger, as well as an eSIM and a nanoSIM connector. This device allows product development teams to control, monitor, and keep track of any asset.
Skandal Technologies – Ambient Communication
The increasing popularity of nearables and interactive connected devices is pushing advancements in computing technology. Real-time computing systems are capable of controlling an environment by collecting, processing, and responding to data from various IoT devices. These developments, in turn, encourage startups to reimagine how people interact with different physical spaces and allow businesses to increase their revenues and visibility.
Based out of Finland, Skandal Technologies is a startup specializing in control systems for real-time environments. The startup offers Poet, a complete ambient communication platform that integrates lighting, sensors, and data harvesting to generate real-time content. Present in both physical and digital spaces, Poet further allows for cloud-based content management and monitoring. Skandal’s solutions create new revenue channels for businesses, adapt to customer experiences, and also look to nudge crowd behavior using non-invasive techniques.
What About The Other 352 Solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence and enable you to achieve your goals faster. The 5 smart object solutions showcased above are promising examples out of 357 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria, get in touch.
