The 10 Coolest Industrial IoT Companies: The 2021 Internet Of Things 50

What follows are the 10 coolest industrial IoT companies of 2021 that are driving new innovations in the way industrial assets are connected and how their data is analyzed.

Industrial IoT Is Making a Comeback

Industrial IoT may have taken a hit in 2020 due to the pandemic, but the market is expected to return to faster growth this year as many companies plan to double down on digital transformation initiatives.

That’s according to a report last year from research firm IDC, which said that it expects IoT spending for three major industrial segments — discrete manufacturing, oil and gas, and transportation — to reach double-digit growth again by 2024 after experiencing slower growth in the previous year. That means there are still major opportunities for vendors to enable organizations to drive new business value by connecting their various systems and assets.

As part of CRN’s 2021 Internet Of Things 50 list, here are the 10 coolest industrial IoT companies of 2021 that are driving new innovations in the way industrial assets are connected and how their data is analyzed.

FogHorn
David King, CEO

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based FogHorn is making AI lightNing fast at the edge for a wide range of IoT applications, from predictive maintenance to energy usage optimization. After raising a $25 million Series C round led by South Korean industrial conglomerate LS Corp. last year, the company brought out new worker health and safety offerings and landed a new partnership with IBM.

Hitachi Vantara
Gajen Kandiah, CEO

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Hitachi Vantara is forging major alliances for its Lumada IoT platform. That includes a strategic alliance with Microsoft that involves Hitachi Vantara delivering manufacturing productivity, logistics optimization and predictive maintenance solutions on top of Microsoft Azure. The company is also expanding its collaboration with Amazon Web Services for Lumada.

KMC Controls
Richard Newberry, CEO

New Paris, Ind.-based KMC Controls is expanding its IoT offerings for building automation through a new partnership with Tosibox, which provides secure remote access capabilities for operational technology environments. The company’s KMC Commander IoT platform makes it easy to collect, visualize and analyze sensor and device data and set up alarms and notifications.

Litmus Automation
Vatsal Shah, CEO

San Jose, Calif.-based Litmus Automation is enhancing its Litmus Edge computing platform, which lets customers collect and analyze data from more than 250 different device types and build and run applications on top. With its recent Litmus Edge 3.0 release, the platform now comes with improved analytics and integration connectors, plus support for digital twins and machine learning algorithms.

PTC
Jim Heppelmann, President, CEO

Boston-based PTC is doubling down on alliances with Rockwell Automation and Fujitsu to push its IoT and augmented reality technologies. The company’s ThingWorx IoT platform has been updated with improved scalability and availability, new solution building blocks, enhanced predictive analytics scoring and expanded self-service tools for enterprise IoT deployments.

Radix IoT
Fred Dirla, CEO

Dallas-based Radix IoT is bringing a new level of monitoring and management capabilities for multisite critical facilities with its new IoT platform, which the company said provides “unprecedented efficiency of data-driven business decisions” for a range of facility types. The platform can scale to thousands of locations while offering a comprehensive toolkit for building IoT solutions.

Samsara
Sanjit Biswas, CEO

San Francisco-based Samsara is scaling up a massive business with its sensor data platform for connected operations, which is helping more than 20,000 customers connect their assets and analyze data to improve safety, efficiency and sustainability. Recently, the company launched its new cloud-connected Site Visibility video management offering for remote monitoring.

Schneider Electric
Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman, CEO

France-based Schneider Electric is building major partnerships with companies like Cisco, Lenovo and Aveva to drive the convergence of information and operational technologies for industrial edge computing offerings. The company’s updated EcoStruxure Power IoT platform brings new levels of efficiency and resiliency for power distribution, plus improved transparency into data.

Siemens
Roland Busch, President, CEO

Germany-based Siemens is ramping up its industrial IoT capabilities across software and hardware. The company’s expanded offerings include the new Sitrans CloudConnect 240 IoT gateway for process industries, the new KNX Touch Control TC5 room operator unit for smart buildings and new predictive service capabilities through its MindSphere IoT platform.

Software AG
Sanjay Brahmawar, Chairman, CEO

Germany-based Software AG is expanding its portfolio of industrial IoT software with the release of TrendMiner, an application available on the SAP Store that provides self-service industrial analytics for smart factories and other types of industrial operations. The application can integrate into various IoT software stacks, including the company’s Cumulocity IoT platform.