4Di Capital funding was ‘less than R10m’ confirms SA IoT startup Sensor Networks

Cape based Internet of Things (IoT) platform Sensor Networks has secured funding from South African venture capital (VC) fund 4Di Capital.

Sensor Networks founder Mark Allewell (pictured above with his team, fourth from left) announced the deal yesterday. It’s the second investment 4Di Capital has this week made public.

Read more: SA drone startup Aerobotics secures R8m in funding from 4Di, Savannah Fund 

While Allewell declined to say how much funding his two-year old startup has tapped, when pushed by Ventureburn to reveal more details he confirmed that it was “less than R10-million”, which included a minority stake in the company by 4Di Capital.

The funding was made available by 4Di Capital through its Exponential Ventures Fund.

Sensor Networks started out in 2015, building Bluetooth trackers to help people find lost items. The startup’s team of nine has since built a web platform aimed at helping insurance companies reduce risk through integration with IoT sensors – all of which is built inhouse.

‘4Di Capital investment was less than R10m says Sensor Networks founder’

Allewell said his startup is working with five South African insurance companies and that the sensors will help an insurance company’s respective business client to reduce things like the incidence of water leaks. This, he added, will result in significant cost savings for insurance companies.

The startup has spent the last year building the hardware and plans to start rolling out with insurance partners in the fourth quarter.

Allewell said as the startup is involved in the design and building of a complete IoT solution — which includes both the development of an online platform and design of sensors — the company is able to offer more tailored solutions for its insurance company clients.

In addition the startup is not held at the mercy of those suppliers that produce unreliable or substandard sensors or from suppliers that may go out of business, he pointed out.

The startup is set to launch another product in October for insurance companies which will utilise home sensors. However Allewell said he could not reveal the details yet of the new product as he had signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Thus far 4Di Capital has made four investments from its Exponential Ventures Fund since the fund’s launch in June last year, said Anton van Vlaanderen.

In addition to Sensor Networks, these include biotech startup LifeQ, money remittance firm Zoona and drones startup Aerobotics.

While a total of R256-million was raised as of June last year, Van Vlaanderen said a small amount had been raised on top of this, but that the fund is still under R300-million.

Featured image: Sensors Network team, with founder Mark Allewell pictured fourth from left (Supplied)