The most recent quarter was one of the strongest quarters for IoT startups yet in funding terms, with $846M in financing, second only to Q2’15. The industrial IoT category is driving a significant amount of this investment, accounting for nearly a third of overall IoT investment in the last quarter.
Increasingly, heavy industry is finding use cases for IoT, and many industrial IoT (IIoT) startups are seizing the opportunity, applying connected sensors to capital-intensive settings like factory and warehouse floors, trucking fleets, and oil wells.
Using CB Insights data, we looked into IIoT funding trends, deal share, and most active investors.
Quarterly financing history
Deals bounced back, moving from 25 in Q4’15 up to 29 in Q1’16, which is only slightly down from the peak of 30 deals set in Q3’15. IIoT funding also grew 11% quarter-over-quarter to $295M, making Q1’16 the second-highest quarter for funding of all time (the highest was the peak set in Q2’15 of $320M).
Notable IIoT deals in Q1’16 included Greenwave Systems’ $45M Series C, Airware‘s $30M Series C, and Enlighted‘s $25M Series D.
Deal share by stage
IIoT deals taking place in the last 5 quarters skew toward the early stage, with seed and Series A deals comprising 51% of all investment activity. Mid-stage deals made up 24% of deals, and late-stage deals only accounted for 10% of all deals.
Large early-stage deals in Q1’16 included a $20M Series A deal to mPrest, which makes software for monitoring IoT systems, and a $10.5M Series A to Motive Drilling Technologies, a guidance system for connected oil drilling in horizontal wells.
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