Turning IoT’s promise into reality
How four startups’ enabling technologies could spur innovation and push IoT into the mainstream.
But after a period that typically lasts around five years, Rook says, a dramatic shift tends to happen, as software players take over, driving global expansion of technologies, and reaping rewards along the way. Think of companies like Twilio and WhatsApp for messaging, or Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Skype for unified communications. He calls this the “embed” phase, and argues the IoT sector is rapidly moving toward it.
As former CEO of IoT at Vodafone and Senior VP of IoT at Sprint, Rook saw the shift happening, and in 2021 joined Cologne, Germany–based 1nce. The company delivers managed connectivity, enabling sensors to communicate and exchange data—globally—with applications in the cloud.
“You can’t have a system that works one way in the US and another way in Asia,” says Rook. While no operator is global, customers are, and they expect things to work the same everywhere. “In order to make a service global, you have to dumb down the network and put the intelligence in the software,” he adds.
By buying bandwidth wholesale and developing in-house all the software needed to run its core network and IT systems, 1nce has been able to lower costs. It offers connectivity for a flat rate of $10 per device for 10 years with enough bandwidth for most IoT applications.
As such, 1nce is positioned as the kind of enabling technology that can finally unlock the promise of IoT. “Our thesis is that a connected product is better than a non-connected product, either because you can service your customer better, maintain the product better, or glean more intelligence from it,” Rook says. For any companies that have stayed on the sidelines when it comes to IoT, that’s something of a call to action.
If history is any guide, connecting an IoT device anywhere in the world will soon be as easy—and affordable—as flicking on a light switch. “We've dumbed down the network for it to perform as universally as electricity,” Rook adds. That’s a hallmark of the embed phase, says Rook. “That's when the industry explodes.”
“I felt a little better that it's not just me going crazy,” he says. “Everyone is beginning to understand that we have many vulnerabilities and risks around IoT, and that governments and the private sector have to work together to protect critical infrastructure.”
New York–based Claroty, founded in 2015 in Israel’s “Silicon Wadi,” is laser-focused on securing critical infrastructure—especially cyber-physical systems in manufacturing, healthcare, food and beverage, automotive, and oil and gas verticals, among others. “These are companies that support our existence every day—the food we eat, the water we drink, the cars we drive, the hospitals we go to,” says Vardi.
Claroty’s mission—to safeguard the IoT-intertwined physical spaces and digital processes that are critical to our well-being as a society and as individuals—is what drew Vardi to take on the role of CEO in 2020. “When a hospital suffers a ransomware attack and surgical units go down, people end up dying,” he says. “We’re not just protecting data. We’re protecting lives.” And by doing so, Claroty is helping the promise of IoT to come into its own—safely.
But securing the IoT world is something of a never-ending pursuit. To keep up with the rapid growth of the sector, Claroty has developed expertise across various domains. “We have a library of hundreds of proprietary communication protocols specific to industrial and healthcare industries through our partner ecosystems from Siemens and Schneider to Rockwell,” says Vardi. “Our researchers and data analysts have reverse-engineered and analyzed the processes and protocols of every device, and we’ve found more than 400 vulnerabilities.”
Davos discussions aside, business leaders must be at the forefront of a cultural shift when it comes to securing IoT devices. Vardi says as many as 60% of IoT connected devices remain unmanaged and not visible to their owners. That creates a huge unprotected attack surface that threatens not only businesses but also their customers.
“I don’t sleep well,” he says. Claroty can help the rest of us sleep a little easier while not growing complacent, and that’s a major win not only for IoT but society at large.
That’s why, in 2017, Trivedi and a passionate group of engineers and scientists from MIT and Stanford founded Palo Alto–based Skylo, a non-terrestrial network service provider spanning the globe. The beauty of Skylo’s proprietary radio access network technology is that it connects IoT devices, cell phones, and smartwatches over existing satellites, with no need for separate modems or antennas.
Skylo started as a research project at Stanford, as Trivedi and his colleagues were building and launching satellites to monitor the ozone. “We realized that satellite connectivity is complex and expensive, requiring special hardware and massive antennas,” Trivedi says. “But the type of data we needed to send and receive was quite small. We said, ‘Something’s broken here.’”
The solution? Firmware that layers on top of existing hardware using the same standards as cellular, allowing devices to seamlessly switch between cellular and satellite connectivity in the roughly 80% of the Earth’s surface where cellular coverage is not available.
Obvious use cases are just the beginning and include monitoring energy and utility infrastructure such as offshore wind farms and undersea pipelines; tracking logistics for long haul trucking and shipping containers; monitoring soil and weather conditions on farms; and even ensuring the safety of hikers and sailors who need to send an emergency SOS. In addition to existing use cases, the technology could unleash a new wave of IoT applications that would have been impossible without ubiquitous connectivity.
“We are going to start seeing data mobilized from geographies that would never have been possible before,” Trivedi says, citing the devastating earthquakes in Turkey in early 2023 as an example. “In a natural disaster like an earthquake, tsunami, or hurricane, the first thing to go down is the mobile network. First responders can’t do their lifesaving jobs.”
Major companies angling to break into the market are launching large and powerful satellites. But Trivedi believes Skylo has the competitive edge, having secured spectrum and landing rights in 195 countries and formed partnerships with existing satellite operators. Better yet, Skylo has amassed a portfolio of more than 65 patents for its core RAN technology.
As Skylo ascends, Trivedi sees a brighter future ahead for his kids and grandkids—one without dead zones. “I can tell you, as a fact at this point, they’re going to ask, ‘You used to go to places where a network didn’t exist?’ To me, seeing that in our lifetime is remarkable.”
Why does the world need a trillion “smart” things? For starters, to fix the supply chain. As much as 50% of fresh food is wasted due to poor handling and storage conditions from farm to store shelf. Consumer products companies and retailers lose $800 billion each year due to supply chain inefficiencies—costs that get passed on to consumers in higher prices.
Wiliot’s Pixel is the first sensor of its kind. It can attach to any package or product and sense temperature, humidity, and location changes, boosting the efficiency—and safety—of food and product transport. And it can collect this data without a built-in energy source. The smart sticker harvests and stores low-level radio-frequency (RF) energy from the air around it. These innovations allow Wiliot to produce each smart sticker for as little as 10 cents.
“A customer told me once, ‘With our supply chains, we’re in the dark,’” Tamir recalls. “‘It’s so messy that if you turn on a flashlight and point it in a random direction, you’ll see something broken.’ We deliver so much data at a granular level that you can do more than just fix the basic problems. You can optimize it.”
Wiliot doesn’t sell its Pixels; rather it sells the data the sensors collect to customers who subscribe to its platform.
Wiliot’s “sensor-as-a-service” vision goes beyond saving companies money. Its platform will enable IoT to save lives. Case in point: Hundreds of thousands of children each year are believed to die after receiving counterfeit antibiotics and vaccines. Attaching a sensor to each vial can validate the drug’s authenticity and safeguard its transport.
Tamir says use cases like food and drug transport are a win-win for companies and consumers. “It’s not a trade-off,” he explains. “Cost will be lower, quality will be higher, you’ll be more efficient. Everything improves. This is why at Wiliot, it has become almost a mission to optimize the physical world, not just as a revenue source.”
Tamir’s fervent belief in that mission—as well as the game-changing and cost-efficient technology he and his team have developed—could dramatically reshape the very idea of IoT and make it an essential part of everyday life and commerce.
