UnaBiz has signed with KDDI-owned Soracom, an investor in and collaborator with the Singapore-based Sigfox-owner already, to resell its global cellular IoT airtime as part of its burgeoning ‘universal LPWAN’ proposition. Meanwhile, The Nikkei reports that Unabiz is looking to raise a further $100 million in a Series C round this year to resell its IoT device and airtime solutions in Japan. It quotes Unabiz that it has investors lined up already.
Unabiz raised $10 million in a Series A funding round in 2018 led by Soracom. It has raised $25 million as part of a Series B funding round in 2021, led by Tokyo-based investment company SPARX Group. The round also saw participation from Taiwanese venture and private equity firm CDIB Capital Group, Singapore-based investment company G K Goh Holdings, and oil and gas company Thai Oil.
Unabiz opened an office in Tokyo in 2021, also, to strengthen its position in the Asia region and to “develop IoT solutions for the Japan market and the rest of the world”. The firm has a presence in Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan, as key regions in the Asian IoT market. The company holds Sigfox licences in both Singapore and Taiwan. It has a supply arrangement with Sigfox operator Kyocera, plus the local investment deal with Soracom.
Earlier this year, Soracom and Unabiz announced a jointly-developed LTE-M smart ‘button’ for “dozens of unique IoT use cases”. The pair, which have collaborated previously on custom hardware and connectivity projects for specific customers, have co-branding and are co-selling the device. Unabiz has been pursuing a ‘unified LPWAN world” since its purchase of French-born IoT tech company Sigfox at the start of last year (2022).
It has just announced a deal with Actility, a genuine aristocrat on the rival LoRaWAN scene. Paris-headquartered Actility had a hand in the development of the LoRaWAN networking protocol, along with Semtech and IBM – as opposed to the LoRa modulation technology, which was invented by Grenoble-based Cycleo in 2009, and sold to Semtech in 2012. It is a founding member of the LoRa Alliance, and a major LoRaWAN vendor and operator.
The arrangement with Actility follows similar LPWA data integration deals with The Things Industries in the Netherlands, Senet in the US, and LORIOT in Switzerland; all of them are powers in the LoRaWAN space, and most of them were already sympathetic to the idea of crossover with Sigfox and other LPWA standards, including cellular-based IoT technologies NB-IoT and LTE-M. Actility was even in the early running to buy Sigfox.
Swiss-based LORIOT is a mainstay in the MIOTY scene, as well; MIOTY is the go-to-market brand for the Johnny-come-lately telegram-splitting ultra-narrowband (TS-UNB) standard, developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits. It has also been in talks with the Wi-SUN Alliance about closer cooperation. The new go-to-market deal with Soracom gives Unabiz a firmer foot in the cellular IoT space, where NB-IoT and LTE-M jostly with global 2G and LTE availability.
Unabiz has been developing cellular IoT hardware solutions for some time, typically as tactical plays to expand business with customers like Australian keg-pooling brand Konvoy Kegs and Japanese gas utility NICIGAS. A statement declared the deal gives Unabiz customers access to Soracom’s roaming deals with 350 mobile operators in 170 countries, to provide “complementary services” to its Sigfox offer. Unabiz will target metering, tracking, and facilities management cases.
It said: “The agreement will kick off in Singapore, Taiwan, France, Spain and Portugal, with the ultimate objective to be subsequently extended to over 0G [Sigfox] operators worldwide where a cellular connectivity option is required by a customer.
Henri Bong, chief executive and co-founder at Unabiz, commented: “It is clear that there is no single network technology that can cover all IoT use cases and collaboration is key to enable IoT at scale. By joining forces with Soracom, our customers will gain access to best-of-breed cellular IoT connectivity to help them achieve their business objectives and ESG goals.
“This distribution model is already tested and proven today with UnaBiz and our 0G operator partners. Our customers chose us because of the additional IoT expertise and know-how they can access alongside the cellular services, which are not always available from your traditional local telco SIM provider. This is why we are pleased to strengthen our strategic partnership and scale up with Soracom with this new extended global agreement.”
Ken Tamagawa, chief executive and founder of Soracom, said: “Soracom is pleased to support UnaBiz and its partners with IoT connectivity and platform services that connect seamlessly to multiple cellular networks including 2G, 3G, 4G LTE and Cat-M1 and NB-IoT. As a cloud-agnostic, hardware-agnostic platform, we firmly believe in the technology convergence movement.”
Bong told The Nikkei, the Japanese financial newspaper, that the new Series C round will draw interest on the grounds the business has turned-around the failing Sigfox business, following its acquisition of the French firm in early 2022. He said: “We already have many investors who are talking about [our devices and services]. Now we know that we are on the path to profitability, we can do it five times faster, we can do it bigger.”
The report suggests Sigfox holds a “five-to-seven percent” market share, versus “competitors” including “Huawei and Semtech”.
