120 Internet of Things start-ups received over $169 mn funding since 2006

52% of these IoT firms were based in Bengaluru, it is the largest base of start-ups in the country

Indian start-ups functioning in the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT) space have attracted over $169 million in funding in the past ten years, with over half of all the companies set up in that time is based in the country's information technology (IT) capital Bengaluru.

According to a study by management consultancy Zinnov, over 120 IoT startups were set up in India in the last decade, with the pace really kicking off after 2010. 

As for the location where a majority of these startups were based in, the study found that 52 per cent of IoT firms were in Bengaluru.

"A wide availability of talent, thriving ecosystem of investors, access to industry experts and the presence of start-up accelerators are contributing to Bangalore's dominance," the report titled 'IoT Start-ups in India 2017' read.

Bengaluru, which is home to research institutes such as Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and a multitude of software and hardware research and development (R&D) labs, houses the largest base of start-ups in the country and third-largest globally. 

Moreover, higher exposure of citizens to technology has meant that adoption of start-up solutions has been high.

In India, 47 per cent of the start-ups playing in the IoT sector cater to consumers, building solutions such as wearables, connected vehicles and connected appliances. In second place were start-ups (40 per cent) catering to the Enterprise IoT sector.

However, by far the most successful set of IoT companies in terms of fundraising cater to the Industrial IoT, accounting for close to $65 million out of the total $169 million the sector has received. 

Large investors such as Tiger Global Management, Blume Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures have backed Industrial IoT companies.

"While the initial wave of growth for IoT start-ups in India were focused on consumer applications, the next wave will be geared towards Industrial IoT. Use cases such as remote monitoring, predictive maintenance, warehouse automation will become mainstream," said Anand Subramaniam, engagement manager & delivery head at Zinnov.