Samsara

Overview

Samsara is an Internet of Things startup that offers a cloud platform solution for industrial sensor data.  Their focus is on providing real time analytics and ease of analysis  for industrial sensor system across a number of industries.  Their product team is focused on a complete solution for their customers so they design the software, hardware, and necessary network infrastructure all in house.

Their in house designed sensor systems (no OEMs) focus on ease of deployment and provide the cloud backend so that their sensors drive meaningful improvements once installed.  Sensors to date include cameras, GPS systems, temperature gauges, environmental sensors, electrical power monitors, etc.

The firm was founded in San Franciso in early 2015 and is currently around 100 employees.  It's cofounders, Sanjit Biswas and John Bicket, are successful serial entrepreneurs who previously sold cloud networking company Meraki to Cisco Systems for $1.2B.

Why I like Them

I 100% agree with Marc Andreessen's belief that within 20 years every physical item will have a chip in it and a wireless antenna. Samsara is at the forefront of this wave with their focus on ease of deployment and making the data these items provide digestable and usable by the end customer.  The team is extremely focused on a plug and play model that offers a complete solution to industrial sensor users, many of which are industries that have not seen as much software automation as you'd expect.

Most of Samsara's business currently comes from logistic and transportation fleet tracking.  An example use case in this market is that the company immediately knows if one of their trucks has had an accident as well as track in real time the position, fuel efficiency, etc of a fleet of thousands of vehicles.  Reports from the team are that their product is a relatively easy sell to dispatch services and fleets.

Beyond the above I am also very excited about the potential applications of Samsara's cloud platform across many other industrial sectors.  It is easy to see how this product could be used across the food industry's cold chain to monitor produce conditions from the farm all the way to the checkout line in the grocery store.  Also, traditional manufacturers of physical goods can easily use this type of technology to monitor products during a manufacturing process, warehouse storage, and transportation.

By all reports their latest $40M in venture funding in June 2017 was driven by investor demand, not by a strong need by the company.

Fleet Tracking Overview Page of Samsara's cloud platform

Disclosure:  I have spoken briefly with members of the company's product team.

Emerging Trends: Commercial Banking Finally Wakes up and Realizes It is Being Disrupted

The New York Times recently had an interesting piece about the upcoming public launch of Zelle.  Zelle is a mobile peer to peer payment network technology that competes against Square Cash, Paypal, Apple Pay, and the popular Venmo app.  Basically you use your mobile device to send money to anyone given their email or phone number - no need to dig for change or have cash handy.

The technology here isn't revolutionary and has been around for a number of years - what I find interesting is that it took the established industry of retail banking 6+ years to role out a product like this.  Despite being owned by every big US bank (JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, etc.) it experienced a ton of delays and missed deadlines.  The industry has realized (potentially to late) that Fintech companies are rapidly gaining traction with younger consumers who prefer their offerings.  This is a textbook example of a incumbent industry fighting upstarts but being a bit behind the curve.  

However, Zelle is taking the right approach in my mind and leveraging its backers by not initially offering a stand alone app like its competitors but seamlessly embedding itself in the mobile banking apps of its backers using a standard consumer facing interface.  No need to start at a 0 install base when millions already use the banks' existing apps.  Zelle is also taking the next step ahead of its competitors of having money transfers be instantaneous with no delays for clearance.

Technologies like these are especially interesting to me as in places like Germany where credit is rarely used or trusted, or in emerging market countries where credit cards just aren't as widespread or available but everyone has a mobile device.  My prediction is that Zelle will turn out to be a great way to get less tech savvy and older generations using instantaneous mobile payments but that the damage has already been done with younger consumers already having entrenched loyalty to their platform of choice (i.e. Venmo, Apple Pay, etc.).

What I Find Interesting in Mary Meeker's 2017 Internet Trend Reports

Annually (and sometimes twice in a year) Mary Meeker of KPCB releases a data packed look at the state of technology, the Internet, various industries, and the Macro picture.  This year it weighs in at a hefty 355 slides which you can see here.  There are already several excellent summaries of the deck with the quick summary  and a longer version.

Some points that drew my attention:

• We are finally at the tipping point where global Internet ad spend surpasses TV ad spend.  I'm surprised that it took us so long to get there.
• The war between online advertisers and ad blocking is just beginning with most developed countries ad blockers being used by less than 20% of the population and less than 5% of mobile users.  Many more battles will be fought here in the coming years.
• Voice is finally starting to noticeably catch on as a user interface both in mobile and at home consumer electronics (i.e. Amazon echo and competitors).  It is likely that the GUI will be to Generation Z what the command line was to the Millennials - a relic of a past age. 
• The fast rise of eSports which is a trend I've had my eye on for several years now.  In the not to distance future it is not to hard to see the eSports becoming as mainstream as traditional athletics.  Far more to come on this from me.
• The continued ascension of Netflix toward dominance in the media industry over the traditional old guard.  I would not be surprised if there is an acquisition attempt or several of Netflix in the next few years and would wager there has already been a few that were rebuffed quietly.
• An exponentially Increasing threat of cybercrime - black hat hackers are the modern day equivalent of the high sea pirates of the 17th century.
• The first few slides of her USA Inc. section really help spell out the current state of the United States government financial situation.  

Apeel Sciences

Overview

Apeel Sciences is an agricultural technology startup that has created a chemical coating that prevents fruits and vegetables from spoiling.  The coatings, (named Edipeel and Invisipeel) are made from purely natural plant parts (leaves, stems) that can't be seen, smelled, or tasted and is human edible.  Invisipeel is applied while the crop is still in the field and Edipeel is applied post harvesting.  The effect of this coating is to increase the lifespan and freshness of a plant by up to 5x.  The team has some amazing time lapse videos showing the effect of their products here.

Apeel's coatings have been FDA approved and the company is based in Southern California.

Why I like Them

I like them because the technology and concept is just very cool.  Roughly 1/3 of food grown is lost due to spoilage (estimated to be $1T in the US alone).  Spoilage is caused by water loss. bacteria, and oxidation of a plant, and their coating prevents all three.  To date most solutions to crop spoilage and storage involve expensive refrigeration, gases, or harmful pesticides.  Crops from international markets can take up to 30 days to reach consumers which is why much of the produce we eat tastes bland and has low nutritional content (intensity of taste is a strong signal of nutritional content in produce).  This type of innovative product cuts costs, improve the consumer experience, reduces waste, and reduces the carbon and environmental footprint that the existing spoilage prevention technologies cause.

Disclosure:  All information is from publicly available sources, I have not had any contact with a member of the company or its investors.

Amber Agriculture

Overview

Amber Agriculture is an agriculture technology startup focused on optimizing and managing crops in storage.  Post harvest grains are stored in giant silos until ready for transit.  Amber has developed pellet sized wireless sensors connected to the cloud that are distributed with the crops through storage all the way to ending up on grocery store shelves.  These sensors monitor moisture levels, carbon dioxide, temperature and chemical compounds in the air of the silos or shipping containers.  Their first application with this data is to automatically turn on and control fans to prevent crop spoilage and alert farmers of any issues with the crop.

The company is still early stage having recently launched several pilots for their product.  The team is based in Champaign, Illinois.

Why I like Them

Amber is part of the digitization wave sweeping the agriculture industry in the last five years that will allow humanity to feed itself with a rapidly growing global population.  As I have written several times on this blog I am a huge fan of using IoT for old world industrial type of processes to give real time data and allow optimization.  Even small amounts of moisture damage to a crop can lower the price dramatically and when scaled up to massive grain silos the potential savings of this product add up to the tens of thousands. 

This type of cheap, easy to distribute technology will be especially useful to farmers in emerging market countries with tougher climates where crop spoilage is a very severe issue and can financially ruin farmers.  India is a prime example where crop spoilage and rot is a severe threat to the food supply with an average harvest losing 30% of the crop.

Disclosure:  All information is from publicly available sources, I have not had any contact with a member of the company or its investors.