SIGFOX raises €100 Million from Telefonica, GDF Suez, NTT Docomo & more

Internet of Things network operator SIGFOX has raised a €100 Million Series C from a wide range of investors, including industrial players (GDF Suez, Air Liquide), Telecom companies (Telefonica, SK Telekom, NTT Docomo) & Hedge Funds (Elliott Management). The fundraising comes just months after CEO & Co-Founder Ludovic Le Moan announced the round publicly, and will allow the company to expand its telecom network, which currently covers France, Spain, the Netherlands & parts of the UK, to 60 countries in the coming 5 years.
SIGFOX, a Founding Partner of the Connected Conference, uses low-energy data transmission embedded inside the firmware of IoT devices to transmit small packets of data across repurposed 2G networks; debates in the past concerning the viability at scale of this technology should be calmed, when looking at the list of Telecom companies investing in SIGFOX.
SIGFOX works with partners, like Securitas Direct in Spain, where it has equipped several million homes with anti-intrusion alarms, licensing out its technology for a flat fee per device plus an annual fee for data transmission. Data bandwidth and frequency of transmission are limited in order to conserve battery life and network stability, and, while currently data can only be sent from objects to the network, rumor has it that some clients are already working with a beta product that will allow two-way transmission. This means remote updates, network communication to devices, and many more possibilities for connected hardware manufacturers.