Seebo Reels In $8 Million In Series A Funding With Channel Growth In Mind

IoT startup Seebo on Wednesday announced an $8 million extension to its Series A funding round, which now totals $16.5 million, as the company focuses on its channel initiatives.

The Israel-based company, which touts its Internet-of-Things platform for manufacturers, will use the funding to establish a strategic alliance program, according to co-founder and CEO Lior Akavia.

’We will use the funding to establish a… dedicated team that will support the growth we are experiencing through system integrators and service providers and enable the channels of our new strategic partners to resell and implement Seebo's IoT solutions,’ Akavia told CRN.

[Related: CRN Exclusive: Siemens Goes On The Channel Offensive With New IoT Mindsphere Partner Program]

The company’s platform is comprised of a hardware simulator, software developer kits for supporting mobile apps, and software to design the solution. Seebo combines IoT modeling, simulation and execution tools to connect machines so that managers can see and evaluate their health and usage data.

Behavioral analytics are automatically layered on top of this big data and the Seebo platform provides insights that drive ongoing product improvement and new business value to customers.

While Seebo has been focused on driving customer adoption and value, Akavia said the next steps are to focus on industrial applications - particularly as the manufacturing market represents a lucrative opportunity for systems integrators to design and deploy IoT solutions.

’Today we see a surge in market demand from industrial manufacturers in dozens of verticals - from mining to packaging machinery, and from water filtration equipment to industrial pumps - in addition to top-notch B2C brand manufacturers that we continue to serve,’ said Akavia.

Akavia said that Seebo, which was named a 2017 Cool Vendor in the Internet of Things by Gartner, currently works with a couple of boutique IOT service providers and system integrators that resell Seebo to their clients.

But the company wants to work toward generating at least 25 percent of new sales bookings through indirect channels – representing triple-digit growth, said Akavia.

Funding for IoT startups has taken off in 2017 – and solution providers say that channel partnerships are vital to IoT companies pulling together their go-to-market strategies.

’Most startups I’ve talked to want to go in alone and build their brand internally… but building partnerships is critical for going to market with IoT," said Rick Erickson, co-founder and executive vice president of business development at solution provider Agosto.

The new investments, which bring Seebo’s total funding to $22 million, come from existing investors TPY Capital and Viola Ventures, as well as Pritzker Group Venture Capital and Japan’s Global IoT Technology Ventures.