The European Space Agency (ESA) aims to foster innovation and to support start-ups through its Business Incubation Centres (BICs). One such success story is INSIGHIO, an ESA BIC Greece alumnus.
By leveraging ESA’s support, INSIGHIO has embarked on a journey to overcome significant barriers in the adoption of Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies: fragmentation, lack of flexibility, and adaptability to connectivity requirements. To this end, the company launched in 2021 a new hardware-enabled managed IoT service to address these exact shortcomings, making IoT more accessible and manageable for businesses and organisations of all sizes.
The Value of IoT Technologies Across Sectors
Today, businesses and organisations across different sectors understand the value of Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies adoption. In the agricultural sector, farmers can optimise their production and minimise resource usage using weather and soil sensor data. Owners of critical infrastructures like energy utilities, road networks, or mining sites can be alerted about possible hazardous conditions and prevent them. The public administration can regularly monitor environmental conditions using sensor data like air quality indicators and act accordingly, benefiting the society. Common to all these use cases is the need to collect IoT data using special hardware and software technologies.
INSIGHIO’s Value Proposition
INSIGHIO’s integrated approach aims to remove the barriers that slow down the adoption of IoT technologies, ensuring connectivity even in the most remote locations and making IoT more accessible and manageable for businesses of all sizes.
During its 3 years’ presence in the market, the company has applied to a variety of sectors and applications, accelerating the uptake of IoT integration. Exemplary applications include:
- Monitoring of beehives production capabilities in remote locations.
- Tracking recycled waste disposal in companies and cities.
- Getting microclimatic weather data in farms.
- Optimising machine usage in the coffee-making industry.
- Improving workplace management and resource usage in smart buildings.
- Safeguarding hard-to-reach sites and cavities, like mines and tunnels.
To date, INSIGHIO has installed and managed more than 350 of its custom IoT hardware nodes, on-boarded to the company’s software platform more than 500 endpoints, and collected more than 10M of sensor data records, with 10 partners and customers, and expanded to new sectors.
INSIGHIO’s Journey to Space
Connectivity is a foundational pillar of the Internet of Things. With terrestrial connectivity covering only 10 to 15% of the Earth’s surface, there is a vast opportunity for satellite IoT communications to bridge this gap.
Satellite IoT is an emerging technology that offers competitive energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness. During the ESA BIC Greece incubation period, INSIGHIO developed and made commercially available an enhanced service version, which supports low-power direct-to-satellite communications and can be integrated with its existing sensing portfolio. This opens significant business exploitation opportunities, as the satellite IoT connections are predicted to play a significant role in the mobile satellite services market.
INSIGHIO joined the ESA BIC Greece programme in July 2022 to advance its IoT service both technically and commercially by leveraging space technologies. During its incubation period, it went beyond the technological maturation and engaged in several key business development activities that significantly impacted the company’s growth and laid a robust foundation for exploiting the developed technology post-incubation.
On the business side, particularly, ESA BIC Greece engaged the company with the local space ecosystem, nurtured new collaborations with local industry players, promoted INSIGHIO in various events, and, more importantly, assisted it in building a comprehensive business exploitation plan.
After two years of dedicated effort, the company released a space-based hardware and software technology stack capable of implementing IoT deployments from proof-of-concept to full-scale launch stages. This solution includes:
- IoT Connectors: a series of hardware modules capable of managing a wide range of sensors to collect valuable IoT data everywhere in the world using space-based connectivity. These modules, paired with open-source firmware, enable the development of numerous applications at a fraction of the time and cost compared to competitors. They simplify major low-level implementation complexities.
- IoT Console: a cloud-hosted platform for orchestrating end-point management and data provisioning. It features tools and interfaces that automate and consolidate services, creating a seamless connection between remote hardware, software, and data.
INSIGHIO’s integrated approach aims to remove the barriers that slow down the adoption of IoT technologies, ensuring connectivity even in the most remote locations.
Current Status and Way Forward
With the support of ESA BIC Greece, the company has established a partnership with ASTROCAST, a mature low-power direct-to-satellite IoT connectivity provider in the EU market. Becoming a member of its Partner/Users network, INSIGHIO can offer a reliable commercial end-to-end service.
INSIGHIO’s flexible service architecture prevents vendor lock-in, allowing it to support multiple satellite IoT operators. In this context, the company is in the process of integrating alternative technologies to expand geographical coverage and support more demanding use cases with higher revisit times and lower costs. This adaptability ensures the company’s IoT solutions remain robust, scalable, and cost-effective, meeting diverse needs across various industries. An example is the cooperation agreement setup in 2023 with the NewSpace APOGEO SPACE company.
To further boost INSIGHIO’s market presence, the company is looking for new partners to co-design and commercialise solutions making use of its hardware/software technology, such as system integrators, IoT sensor manufacturers & suppliers, IoT connectivity module & service providers, and Earth Observation data providers wanting to validate/expand their offering using in-situ IoT data in addition to satellite data.
This article was written for the occasion of the 20 years anniversary of the ESA BIC network in Europe. For the full overview of this celebration, go to the LinkedIn group by clicking on the button below.
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