Connectivity Pioneer Onomondo Raises $21 Million Growth Investment Led by Verdane To Become Leading Global IoT Stack

Asset-rich industries like transport, manufacturing, and logistics have long attempted to harness the Internet of Things (IoT) to manage supply chains, improve automation and drive efficiency. Despite advances in hardware and cloud, the connectivity component of the IoT remains a stubborn barrier, with today’s approaches relying on a patchwork of national telecoms operators or Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). This patchwork means enterprises cannot gain sufficient interoperability, visibility, or control over their connected assets on a global basis.

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“Drawing from a deep understanding of traditional network infrastructure, Michael, Henrik and the Onomondo team is bringing a fresh, next-generation approach to the challenges the IoT market continues to face today”

For digital transformation to happen at scale in physical industries, a fundamentally different technical and commercial architecture for IoT connectivity is needed. This is what Danish scale-up Onomondo has built by redesigning existing connectivity architecture to create a single virtualised IoT network, without reliance on the traditional operator network stack. Instead, the firm has integrated more than 700 operators at the Radio Access Network (RAN) level across more than 180 countries, as well as layering its own API-based IoT platform on top. This means users gain granular, real-time insight into the performance of each connected device, allowing them to tap into their global grid and troubleshoot IoT devices from anywhere.

Devices connected to Onomondo contain an interoperable SIM card, meaning assets can seamlessly move across national borders without the inherent complexity of roaming. Data is transferred directly across the Onomondo virtual network to one of the firm’s cloud partners (Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud and more), so enterprises can easily understand what is going on between devices and the network, through to the core network, and on to the IoT cloud from a single interface.

As a natural extension of the architectural redesign, Onomondo also redesigned its commercial offering to be unlike any offering existing today. As the platform includes a connectivity marketplace, enterprises can set priorities based on cost, coverage and performance, empowering the platform to automatically select the best operator in any given location, at any given time. This feature prevents operator lock-in by offering the freedom to control precisely which networks devices connect to, as well as giving enterprises the flexibility to balance the quality of coverage and cost-optimization, depending on the use case.

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Michael Karlsen, Co-Founder & CEO, and Henrik Aagaard, Co-Founder & CTO at Onomondo commented: “It’s interesting how the attention in IoT has traditionally centered around Hardware and Cloud. Connectivity was the commodity added in the end. We see a clear shift now towards the market asking for more from their connectivity solution. This trend will dramatically heighten the success rate of IoT and lower both complexity and barriers to entry. All of this will eventually benefit both people, profit, and planet. Onomondo and our recent momentum is a clear representation of this shift and we have found Verdane to be the perfect partner to help us deliver fully on this vision and accelerate our growth.”

This latest funding round has been led by Verdane, a leading growth equity investment firm that specialises in growing digital consumer, software, and sustainable society businesses. Coupled with participation from existing investors, Onomondo will leverage the new funds to drive growth and meet its planned projection of tripling its ARR in 2022 and 2023. The company also plans to scale its team from 50 to 100 by the end of 2022, helping to expand its customer base, which currently includes the likes of Bosch, Carlsberg, MAN Energy Solutions, and Maersk.

“Drawing from a deep understanding of traditional network infrastructure, Michael, Henrik and the Onomondo team is bringing a fresh, next-generation approach to the challenges the IoT market continues to face today,” Pål Malmros, Partner at Verdane concluded. “We are convinced that Onomondo’s solution has the potential to vastly accelerate global roll-out of IoT, as well as expand the total set of addressable use cases, and we look forward to partnering with the company to significantly accelerate the business’ expansion and growth internationally, drawing on the Verdane team’s experience from over 45 other software investments.”

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