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dgearhart@firstanalysis.com
cmorgan@firstanalysis.com
- Based on our meetings and observations on the CES show floor and follow-up conversations with attending companies in the weeks since then, we identified five key themes for B2B IoT.
- First, our conversations suggest consolidation among connected car tech companies is already underway and set to accelerate. We think only a handful of vendors will likely emerge as true leaders among literally hundreds of players.
- Second, while in-car payment is a logical use of vehicles’ embedded connectivity and digital capabilities and a natural part of the software-defined vehicle evolution, we think it makes most sense for activities that are clearly vehicle related, such as paying tolls, reserving and paying for parking and EV charging, and paying for car washes. We think these solutions will see the greatest adoption.
- Third, we continue to see progress in energy harvesting technology and expect it to see strong adoption eventually, but we think it will be at least a few more years before it becomes mainstream unless more vendors evangelize with actual products.
- Fourth, we expect autonomy backup technology to become an industry standard for all autonomous programs. Autonomy backup tech enables remote human operators to take control of autonomous vehicles and similar systems when autonomy fails.
- Lastly, we see a surprising number of IoT solution companies seeking to acquire connectivity assets in the already-consolidating MVNO market.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Once again, a prime forum for the Internet of Things
Even with growth potential, connected car market is overcrowded
Value of in-car payments unclear, so adoption is uncertain
More interest in energy harvesting, but vendors need to evangelize with products
Remote operation by humans likely to become common
Software and hardware companies show surprising interest in acquiring MVNO assets
Looking ahead to more CES
IoT index gains in line with market
IoT M&A: Notable transactions include Zonar, CHeKT, Preteckt
IoT private placements: Notable transactions include 75F, Netradyne, SuperAnnotate
Once again, a prime forum for the Internet of Things
Our attendance at the 2025 CES show, otherwise known as the Consumer Electronics Show, reinforced our view it has become a prime forum for the Internet of Things. While the show remains centered on consumer offerings, it featured an increased proportion of business-to-business (B2B) companies compared to prior years.
We met with over 50 B2B IoT exhibitor and attendee companies across the IoT value chain at the show and had follow-up conversations in the following weeks. These companies’ focuses ranged from enabling hardware to network connectivity to infrastructure and end-user application software. They encompassed both point solutions and end-to-end solutions for a wide range of vertical markets and use cases, including connected cars, network connectivity, middleware software, energy harvesting, hardware-agnostic IoT full solutions, and robotics. We expect CES to continue to rise in prominence as a highly productive forum for B2B IoT companies and to draw an increasing number of industry participants given the quantity and quality of customer, partner and investor meetings it offers.
Based on our conversations and observations, we identified five key themes for B2B IoT.