Here are 5 South African IoT Executives You Need To Know

The IoT ecosystem is expected to experience the largest growth in the history of humankind.

With a current market valuation of over $900 billion, both manufacturers and those looking to adopt Internet of Things (IoT) solutions are aware of the potential of IoT.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), also known as the Industrial Internet, brings together brilliant machines, advanced analytics, and people at work. It’s the network of a multitude of devices connected by communications technologies that results in systems that can monitor, collect, exchange, analyze, and deliver valuable new insights like never.

South Africa is not left behind in the rush to create networks and solutions for IoT.

Here’s a look at five inspirational IoT executives working smart to bring us the benefits of the fourth industrial revolution in South Africa.

Nico Steyn, Chief Executive Officer – IoT.nxt

Steyn has the difficult task of showing the market that IoT solutions are here to stay to provide solutions to our

modern challenges.

IoT.nxt is becoming a poster child for IoT in the country and its reputation is growing every day.

Steyn job is less about telling corporate what IoT is but why they should be using IoT.nxt solutions.

So far, the company is winning the hearts of its clients and expanding globally to display South Africa’s IoT capabilities.

The Pretoria-based IoT company has successfully opened in January an associate office in London, and in July opened its first fully-fledged office in Europe in The Netherlands. It is now targeting the tough US market.

With Steyn at the helm, IoT.nxt has won numerous accolades.

Reshaad Sha, Chief Executive Officer – SqwidNet

Sha is arguably one of the most IoT executives to watch in South Africa. He’s tasked with developing South Africa’s open-access IoT network infrastructure to enable developers to provide intelligent solutions to the country.

He’s fast tracking the deployment of the IoT network and is doing a great job.

SqwidNet’ s IoT network has been deployed across all of South Africa’s eight major metros and cover more than 49% of the population, and will exceed 85% population coverage by the end of the year.

SqwidNet is a subsidiary of Dark Fibre Africa and deploying an open access ultra-narrowband IoT (Internet of Things) radio network in South Africa licensed by France’s Sigfox.

Agnat Max Makgoale, Chief Executive Officer – Vula Telematix

Makgoale has one very important job: Create a healthy developer ecosystem as the base for a successful IoT platform.

He’s been spearheading the creation of a blanket coverage of the country with Vula Telematix’ s IoT network to empower local applications developers to create intelligent solutions to be connected to its network.

Vula Telematix IoT network, which is powered by US-based IoT specialist Ingenu, is already covering four main South African cities, including Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Tshwane, and soon to be available in Nelson Mandela Bay.

So far, he’s convincing municipalities and farmers to be smart and embrace the digital future.

There is a huge opportunity for IoT app developers.

Research firm IDC predicts that about $1.8 trillion globally by 2020 will be spent on the IoT solutions.

Iain Stevenson, Chief Executive Officer – Comsol IoT

Stevenson seems to hate the limelight.

However, he also works to ensure that IoT has an inclusive platform for all of us.

The Comsol IoT network is deployed on the back of Comsol’s R1,5 Billion Open Access Layer 2 National network investment and will be available for sensor service termination by February 2017 in the major metros.

Comsol, backed by Convergence Partners, Nedbank Private Equity, and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) as investment partners.

Stevenson recently said that Comsol IoT will not only provide an end-to-end solution for organisations moving into the IoT world, it offers a platform on which an entire ecosystem can be created to address the challenges the modern world faces.

Kees Snijders, Managing Director – Flickswitch

Under the leadership of Snijders, Flickswitch has launched the country’s first IoT starter pack.

The IoT requires the ability to reliably send and receive data and Flickswitch IoT starter pack simplifies this to manage connectivity costs, reduce risks and make it easy to manage large numbers of data SIM cards.

SIMs extend beyond just data and voice billing in the devices of employees. They play an essential role in machine to machine (M2M) communication.

Forming part of the Internet of Things, M2M enables systems to communicate with other devices anywhere in the world.

This means that organisations can have multiple connected devices that transmit large amounts of data back into the corporate back-end.

Flickswitch is making this process reliable.

• This article was originally published on Talk IoT. Read the original article here.