PremiumBengaluru: Dubai-headquartered iWire, an emerging internet of things (IoT) company, said on Wednesday it will be the exclusive operator for communications provider Sigfox in the Indian market.
The announcement coincides with its Series A funding of $34 million led by Noor Capital and supported by Bpifrance, the French sovereign wealth fund and a leading export credit agency in Europe.
Bpifrance has granted a long-term equipment purchase option to iWire, through a $25 million buyer credit agreement, exclusively for the development of Sigfox networks in 12 countries across Asia, Middle East and Africa including India.
The investment will be utilized by iWire to expand, over the coming years, its geographic presence across 12 countries, by building the digital communication infrastructure to power massive IoT. iWire has so far raised over $47 million, over the past three years.
iWire has already deployed the Sigfox network in the UAE in 2019. While extending its network coverage to India, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and Tunisia is the immediate priority, in 2022, it will expand the network to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and a few more countries in the Middle East and Africa.
“We offer our customers an alternative to legacy connectivity solutions, thus enabling successful digital transformation at a lower cost of ownership…We believe India is at a crucial inflection point and the pandemic is only accelerating the transformation further. This is the best time for us to be here," said Ahmed Fasih Akhtar, CEO, iWire.
