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Vodacom to buy IoT.nxt to accelerate IoT strategy

24th May 2019

By: Natasha Odendaal

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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JSE-listed Vodacom is planning to acquire a majority stake in end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) solutions provider IoT.nxt for an undisclosed amount to provide traction for its own IoT strategy and transform its dedicated IoT business unit.

The acquisition will enable Vodacom to operate across the full IoT value chain and develop best-in-class solutions for clients across a number of industry verticals.

“In addition to accelerating Vodacom’s IoT strategy, our investment in IoT.nxt brings a number of advantages to Vodacom’s existing IoT capability, including class-leading platform technology,” says Vodacom group CEO Shameel Joosub, adding that it will allow better orchestration of the information obtained from sensors and edge devices.

The deal will also allow IoT.nxt, which was established in 2015, to further commercialise a number of its vertical solutions into off-the-shelf products, while continuing its core development and innovation of the platform.

“This partnership is incredibly exciting for IoT.nxt. It allows us to combine the power of our technology and the considerable strength of Vodacom’s capabilities, footprint and brand,” adds IoT.nxt CEO Nico Steyn.

IoT.nxt’s technical differentiation opens the opportunity for Vodacom to leverage the innovative edge technology and end-to-end platform across all industries, allowing for both scalability and rapid time-to-market.

“The combination of its protocol agnostic information layer and its flexible architecture allows for rapid solution development and the realisation of benefits. Vodacom has deployed this technology in its base stations, which will result in significant energy savings,” he adds.

IoT.nxt cofounder, major current shareholder and funder Talent10 invested a further R100-million in 2017 for the opening of its European office in The Hague.

The group now operates across the US, Europe and South Africa.

“Cofounding IoT.nxt has proved to be one of our most significant decisions to date. It was clear within months that this IoT technology startup had a world-leading solution. We made a further investment of R100-million in 2017 to allow the company to expand internationally,” says Talent10 Holdings CEO Wayne Fitzjohn.

IoT.nxt’s existing management team will continue to run the company, working with Vodacom’s IoT business, led by Vodacom business chief officer William Mzimba.

Vodacom has identified IoT as a key strategic growth area for the group, which is building a vision “beyond a telco”, and has embarked on its digital transformation journey.

The strategy positions Vodacom as a leader and key partner in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and to change from a traditional telecommunications services company to a digital services company.

“Vodacom will continue to seek strategic acquisition opportunities to drive ongoing investment in the IoT sector and to become the digitalisation partner of choice for enterprise clients and customers,” Joosub says.

“We continue to make good progress on our key strategic pillars. We expect the solid momentum from our digital services platforms to continue. Further, the strategic partnerships being formed by our Enterprise business will strengthen our IoT offers and Enterprise propositions, ultimately to the benefit of consumers.”

Vodacom is expanding its Enterprise business through the formation of strategic partnerships and acquisitions to deliver integrated solutions, strengthening offerings in IoT and expanding customer value propositions.

These services are set to drive future data growth and new revenue streams.

Vodacom is also enhancing its financial services through the acquisition of the M-Pesa brand and platform, an enhanced payment gateway and a loan aggregation platform.

“We are in the process of concluding the acquisition of the M-Pesa brand and platform-related assets from Vodafone through a joint agreement with Safaricom. We expect this will further accelerate our mobile money growth plans in Africa.

“The commercialisation of our recently launched payment gateway and digital wallet will assist in sustaining financial services growth in South Africa,” he adds.

Further, the company is embarking on a strategic partnership with AWS to drive solutions-based architecture, with Vodacom aiming to become certified as AWS Premier Consulting Partner by 2020.

“We spent R2-billion on information technology (IT) during the year. Our focus is to become smarter and more agile in delivering products to our customers,” Joosub continues, noting the intention of deepening Vodacom’s digital IT capabilities through its IT acceleration programme.

Investment continues in cloud infrastructure and migrating applications, IT services and network functions into cloud platforms to enhance flexibility and improve scalability, availability and performance of services.

“We are leading in the implementation of Big Data, artificial intelligence and robotic process automation to optimise revenue, operate more efficiently and maximise our investment returns.”

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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