India based global energy and environment company Enzen Group has invested $8m into Australian LoRaWAN network operator National Narrowband Network Co (NNNCo). Its equity share was not disclosed.
NNNCo says it will use the funds to expand its LoRaWAN network, enhance its enterprise software platform, and expand its solutions into key vertical markets including energy, water, cities, logistics, mining, agriculture, property, and health and safety, and will work with Enzen Australia on a range of market opportunities to meet industry demand for IoT-led digital transformation nationwide.
NNNCo says it has built a technology-agnostic enterprise software platform, N2N-DL, from the ground up and views this as key to its expansion plans. It was named Infrastructure & Platforms Innovation of the Year at the 2019 NSW iAwards in Sydney.
Platform power
NNNCo cofounder and CEO, Rob Zagarella said: “The N2N-DL Platform … enables customers to deploy IoT solutions at scale to meet their specific data requirements, regardless of the device or network they use, and overcomes some of the major complexities that have been a barrier to IoT previously.”
Zagarella said the involvement of Enzen would enable it to solve larger challenges for customers and deliver a deeper value proposition.
“We’re able to connect sensors to just about anything from water mains pipes to streetlights to irrigation pumps..[and] this investment and partnership with Enzen means we can now do that at scale, deliver useable data from infinite applications, and enable that data to be integrated into business operations for real-time optimisation,” he said.
“With this partnership, we will be able to tap into Enzen Australia’s extensive expertise and credibility in key sectors such as energy, water and cities, as well as leveraging the global reach of Enzen Global.”
Aiming for world leadership
“We believe there is a real opportunity for Australia to lead the world in the next wave of IoT digitisation and together with Enzen we will be at the forefront of that,” he said.
Enzen Australia CEO, Dileep Viswanath, said the company’s goal was to enable energy, water companies and cities in particular to make sustainable improvements to their efficiency and performance.
“Together with NNNCo we will work with industry and government to accelerate that transformation,” he said. “For our energy business, this partnership builds on our ability to integrate renewable energy and storage resources with controlling demand response which will ultimately lower energy costs while increasing security.
“It also complements other investments such as Wellness Telecom that is focused on smart cities, smart street lighting and smart communities.’’ Spain based Wellness Telecom is a partner of Sigfox, provider of wireless technology that competes with LoRaWAN.
Enzen has projects in over 20 geographies and offices in seven countries, including Australia where it has a presence in Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland and a head office in Adelaide.
NNNCo has several IoT projects deployed or in planning with City of Gold Coast, Gold Coast Water, Hunter Water, Newcastle City Council, Lake Macquarie Council and Goanna Ag. The company recently extended its network across the entire Gold Coast Local Government Area.
New NNNCo board
NNNCo was established in 2015 by Zagarella David Spence, former CEO of OzEmail and Unwired and current chairman of PayPal Australia. It received early seed capital from venture capitalist Roger Allen who introduced Series A investors to the company in 2016.
Following Enzen’s investment, Spence will become executive chair former Vocus CFO, Rick Correll, will also take an executive director position, Ian Mcleod, Enzen’s director for smart energy and former CEO of Ergon Energy Corporation and Rahul Choraria, Enzen Group Finance head will join the NNNCo board.
