The Week in Review: IoT

Finance
VDOO Connected Trust received $13 million in seed funding led by 83North, with participation by Dell Technology Capital and individual investors David Strohm, Joe Tucci, and Victor Tsao. The startup offers Internet of Things device developers the capability to add cybersecurity features to those devices after they’re deployed. VDOO was founded last year in Israel by Netanel Davidi, Uri Alter, and Asaf Karas; the company also has offices in the U.K. and the U.S. The company is currently working with design partners on an initial release and plans to have an early beta program in June.

C3 IoT reports raising $100 million in new funding, bringing its total private funding to north of $220 million. TPG Growth, Breyer Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, Patricia House (C3’s executive vice chairman), and Thomas M. Siebel (C3’s chairman and CEO), all existing investors, participated in the new round, and were joined by The Rise Fund. C3 IoT has added artificial intelligence products in the areas of energy management and precision health to its portfolio.

M&A
Allot Communications has agreed to acquire Netonomy, a developer of software-based cybersecurity for the connected home; financial terms weren’t revealed. The transaction is expected to close shortly. Allot sees the Netonomy purchase as in line with its strategy to offer communications service providers with security measures for their customers.

Qualcomm said its proposed acquisition of NXP Semiconductors received approval from the European Commission and the Korea Fair Trade Commission, with conditions. The IC design and licensing company still needs antitrust clearance from China. Qualcomm agreed to exclude certain near-field communication patents from the transaction and committed to allowing NXP to license those patents to third parties. The company will not assert the NFC patents it will acquire from NXP, and it promises to maintain interoperability between its baseband chipsets and NXP’s NFC chips, as well as the baseband chipsets and NFC chips from competitors. Qualcomm will license the MIFARE contactless smart-card chip technology on terms commensurate with those currently offered by NXP. Meanwhile, Qualcomm River Holdings extended its cash tender offer for NXP shares to February 9, 2018. American Stock Transfer & Trust Company has received nearly 5.7 million NXP common shares, representing about 1.7% of NXP’s outstanding shares.

Market Research
Gartner forecasts worldwide IT spending will increase 4.5% this year to $3.68 trillion, driven by artificial intelligence, big data analytics, blockchain technology, and the IoT. The market research firm sees global IT expenditures growing another 2.7% in 2019 to $3.78 trillion.

Products/Services
Cisco Systems is adding analytics, services, and software to its IoT platform, trying to help customers understand data traffic flows and patterns in the underlying network. The company will launch its intuitive networking system in March, providing encrypted traffic analytics for increased network visibility.

Reno, Nevada-based Filament has introduced the Blocklet chip, enabling industrial devices to communicate and interact with multiple blockchain technologies. Filament CEO Allison Clift-Jennings says this chip will enable e-commerce for industrial devices through secure microtransactions.

Sierra Wireless unveiled the AirPrime HL78 module, based on Altair Semiconductor’s ALT1250 chipset. The low-power wide-area module works over global navigation satellite systems while supporting LTE-M, narrowband IoT, and 2G wireless communications, all in a CF3 module. The company is currently sampling HL7800 and HL7802 modules with leading customers; general availability is set for the third quarter of this year.

Moortec Semiconductor reports its embedded monitoring subsystem can work with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s 12FFC process technology. Its process, voltage, and temperature monitoring intellectual property is meant for the IoT and other applications.

Conferences
The embedded world 2018 conference and exhibition takes place in Nuremberg, Germany, from February 27 through March 1.

The IoTBuild USA 2018 conference is March 27-28 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in Burlingame, Calif.

Organizations
The China Unicom Research Institute has joined the Zigbee Alliance. The institute’s Smart Home Standardization United Group will participate in the alliance’s standards development working groups and will seek to integrate its works into international standards, while also proposing Zigbee technology to be accepted into China’s industry standards, including the smart home market.