More news from busy LoRaWAN network operator Netmore Group; the Sweden-based firm has acquired Dutch operator Everynet, a key historical player in the LoRaWAN narrative, for an undisclosed fee. The move further cements Netmore Group’s position as the most ambitious and acquisitive outfit in the non-cellular IoT market, having snapped-up US-based LoRaWAN operator and platform provider Senet at the start of 2024, opened-up a local presence in the Asia Pacific region, and signed-up various regional LoRaWAN providers on franchise-style deals via its platform-as-a-service product (acquired from Senet).
The deal, subject to regulatory approval, makes Netmore the most global LoRaWAN provider on the planet. Everynet operaties on four continents. It strengthens Netmore’s existing operations in the US, UK, Spain, and Ireland, it said, and also “opens new markets and customer opportunities” in Brazil, Italy, Indonesia, Andorra, and Iceland. (It delivers “immediate and significant expansion into the Latin American and Asia Pacific regions”, it stated.) In sum, the acquisition will expand Netmore’s “direct presence” to 17 countries – thereby “positioning the company as the top LoRaWAN operator in the world”, it said.
It also adds more than one million provisioned sensors to its books, including 400,000 track-and-trace devices, 300,000 smart gas meters, and 200,000 smart water meters. Curiously, the company said the deal “doubles Netmore’s provisioned devices”, at the same time as saying the deal (for one million sensors) brings its total active devices to over 2.3 million. Ove Anebygd, chief executive at Netmore, remarked: “After a long period of fragmentation, the market is reaching an inflection point where consolidation is aligned with global interest in digitising critical utility and energy management operations.”
Anebygd said: “The [deal] strengthens Netmore’s market position and accelerates our ambition to become a global and world-leading IoT operator. After a long period of fragmentation, the market is reaching an inflection point where consolidation is aligned with global interest in digitising critical utility and energy management operations. With water utility metering… as a leading use case, Netmore has established a leadership position and is becoming a sustainability catalyst…. We’re excited to welcome the Everynet team and expect to benefit greatly from their LoRaWAN competence and market knowledge as we continue our growth journey.”
Frederik Oliver, chief executive at Everynet, said: “[This] represents an important strategic alignment of resources and technical expertise that will provide our customers – and many others globally – with access to a best-in-class LPWAN platform, expanded network coverage and densification capabilities, and new and improved products and services from the de facto market leader. With the LoRaWAN market growing and large-scale sensor deployments becoming common, we’re excited about the next phase of growth as part of Netmore’s expanding operations.”
Netmore, majoirty-owned by Nordic infrastructure investor Polar Structure, has just announced a deal with the UK arm of Spanish tower company Cellnex to install LoRaWAN gateways on around 200 street poles for the delivery of low-power wide-area IoT network (LPWAN) coverage. Netmore is bolstering its IoT network coverage in the UK to support rollout of LoRaWAN-based smart meters for regional water utilities in the country. It has a major deal with Yorkshire Water to exchange 1.3 million water meters in one of Europe’s largest LoRaWAN water metering projects.
Yorkshire Water reckons IoT-connected smart meters have so far seen leakage in the region reduce by 500,000 litres. Its deal with Netmore also covers “data services” for smart meters up to 2045. Netmore will lead a roster of suppliers to cover the delivery, installation, commissioning, and maintenance of the new meters. The meter project is subject to final approval, due in December, from the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat), responsible for economic regulation of the privatised water industry in England and Wales.
