In a sign of growing investor interest across the IoT ecosystem, financing activity to the IoT market grew in each successive quarter of 2013 to hit an eight-quarter high in Q4 2013.
2013 saw the Internet of Things capture the imagination – and financing dollars – of investors to the tune of $1.1B across 153 deals. And in a sign of growing investor interest across the IoT ecosystem, financing transactions to the IoT market grew in each successive quarter of 2013 to hit an eight-quarter high in Q4 2013.
The host of emerging private companies in the Internet of Things market tracked in the CB Insights database covers a diverse range of connected technologies ranging from the quantified self and healthcare sensor technologies to energy management and home automation. On a year-over-year basis, IoT deals grew 11% last year. After stripping out a mega debt round to now Blackstone-owned home automation firm Vivint in Q1 2012, we see that funding activity saw notable YoY growth of 49%.
Early-Stage Deals Dominate IoT Financing Activity
Over the past two years, 64% of deals in the IoT market occurred at the seed or Series A stages. As investors warm up to new sensor and internet-enabled hardware firms, Series A deal activity saw a YoY rise of 52% last year. The spectrum of IoT companies investors are backing at the early-stage span a range of functions and use cases. Several startups that raised early-stage funding (Seed/Series A) in 2013 are highlighted below.
- SmartThings -Smart home sensor technologies backed by Greylock Partners and Highland Capital Partners
- The Orange Chef -Sensor-enabled kitchenware backed by investors Google Ventures, SparkLabs Global Ventures and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments
- August – Smart lock and mobile platform backed by investors including SoftTech VC, Cowboy Ventures and Maveron
- Lark Technologies -Wearable alarm clock and sleep tracker backed by investors including CrunchFund, Fenox VC and Asset Management Ventures
- SoundHawk – Internet-enabled wearable hearing devices backed by True Ventures
- Netatmo -Air quality sensors and personal weather station backed by Iris Capital
Silicon Valley takes 1/4 of IoT deals
Geographically, Silicon Valley-based IoT companies have taken just over 1/4 of all deals since 2012 and saw substantial deal growth on a YoY basis. Just over 1/5 of deals went to NY and Mass-based companies.
For more Internet of Things financing and exit data and interactive rankings, check out the CB Insights Venture Capital Database. Sign up for free below. A full list of investor-backed IoT companies can also be purchased in the Data Store.