Skylo emerges from stealth with $116 million funding to build affordable satellite network for IoT data

IoT solutions provider Skylo Technologies has raised $103m in its recently held series B funding round led by SoftBank Group.

Prior to this, the California-based firm raised $13m in Series A funding. Now as Skylo has accumulated a total funding of $116m till date, the company will aim to bring instant, affordable, and global IoT connectivity to millions of machines, sensors, and devices, even in the most distant geographies.

Skylo also claims to be the world’s first IoT firm to leverage the NB-IoT protocol through a satellite, allowing it to instantly connect billions of sensors on objects and machines in remote areas. Its new satellite connectivity uses existing geostationary satellites to bring reliable connectivity without the requirement of adding new infrastructure in space. It has customers at both the enterprise as well as the government level, ranging from automotive, railways, agriculture and maritime.

Skylo co-founder and CEO Parthsarathi Trivedi said: “Skylo envisions a world where connectivity for machines, sensors and devices is as ubiquitous as the sky. This low-cost, global fabric of connectivity for machine data will be transformative for entire industries.”

Earlier this month, software firms Teraki and Machfu each raised $11m and $16.3m, respectively. Teraki would be using the funds to improve the current explosion in demand of data in electronics components used in automotive systems, whereas Machfu would be using its funds to further its successes in smart grid and oil and gas and expand its footprint.

Last November, UK-based IOTech Systems raised $7.5m in series A funding led by Dell Technologies Capital. The company aims to address the comprehensive range of secure hard and soft real-time edge computing needs in multiple vertical IIoT market domains via an open source business execution model that boosts IoT adoption across the world.

(Source: IoTNews https://www.iottechnews.com/news/2020/jan/24/skylo-emerges-stealth-116-million-funding-build-affordable-satellite-network-iot-data/)