Hiber Emerges from HibernatIoTn
Netherlands-based IoT innovator, previously known as Magnitude Space, rebranded to "Hiber" in 2017, drawing inspiration from the idea of its modems entering a dormant state akin to “hibernating bears” between signal transmissions. This foreshadowed a period of dormancy during which the company was honing its strength. Today, Hiber’s renaming looks more like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Awakening to a Sharpened Focus & Renewed Mission
It’s no surprise that the once-promising AWS Commercial Startup Winner of 2018 slept right through COVID after its first four cubesats failed. But the company’s recent acquisition of Parisian-based IoT hardware provider Srett Industrie is what caught us off guard.
Many had written off the Dutch IoT hopeful after it scrapped its constellation plans in 2021, and its merger with Swiss smallsat operator Astrocast tanked the following year. But Hiber’s history of starts and stops is marked by a few pivots toward profitability along the way:
• In late 2020, Hiber partnered with WTS Energy to develop and launch a subscription-based IoT solution for remote monitoring of oil & gas wells and pipelines. Designed for off-grid (no cellular connectivity, so limited availability to deploy NB-IoT), the “HiberHilo” platform is an out-of-the-box, plug-and-play solution. It includes compact, low-power, battery-operated sensors connected to wellheads. The sensors route data via LoRaWAN (long-range, frequency-hopping, and unregulated sub-GHz spectrum) to the Hiberband gateway, which then uplinks to third-party satellites, including Inmarsat’s. End users access the data on Hiber’s remote dashboard. HiberHilo is scalable to ~500 sensors per oil platform, and because the equipment is leased, there is no capex investment.
• Shell Oil tapped Hiber in 2021 for global well integrity monitoring, deploying HiberHilo at about 250 remote and offshore wellheads.
• In 2022, HiberHilo won a Digital Innovation of the Year Award.
• Hiber earned the financial backing of Finch Capital subsidiary FC Space in 2023.
• In the March 18, 2024, announcement of Hiber’s acquisition of Srett to expand its R&D and manufacturing capabilities, the combined company is reportedly already serving “eight of the 10 global oil & gas and hydrogen majors in all continents.”
As a private company, details about Hiber’s claims of “profitability” are impossible to quantify. But the bear’s emergence from a dark cave of $33M+ in losses to a scalable IoT solutions provider serves as a reminder to startups: sometimes the path to success is not through relentless hustle… but rather a thoughtful hibernation followed by a strategic wake-up call.
SOURCE: https://quilty.globalspaceexchange.com/dashboard/Hiber%20Acquires%20Srett%20Industrie%20to%20Accelerate%20the%20Roll-Out%20of%20Environmental%20and%20Integrity%20Solutions