Samsung partners with Sigfox for Internet of Things

Samsung, the technology giant has announced its undisclosed amount of investment in France-based start up Sigfox, which has recently raised $115 million mega round in venture capital.

Sigfox is building a low cost, alternative cellular network for connected objects known as Internet of Things (IoT). This alternative network allows small connected objects (through small chips) to pass on little packet of informations using little battery and cheap hardware. This battery-efficient and long-range devices cannot be as efficient on a traditional cell network.

At the conference held in Paris, Samsung Electronics's president and chief strategy officer Young Sohn said, "We made the decision to invest in Sigfox. But even more important, Sigfox is a partner."

This move of Samsung is considered a significant one that provides platform for its connected object product ARTIK.

ARTIK is a hardware and software solutions designed particularly for companies working on connected objects. With this, Samsung will compete with Qualcomm and Intel by selling ready-to-use boards with all chips and sensors required.

"At Samsung, we believe that the Internet of Things (IoT) will deliver huge benefits to society and to us as individuals," added Sohn.

Meanwhile, Sigfox chief executive Ludovic Le Moan said in a statement that "Samsung is fueling innovation and making it very easy for developer to create new applications and service that will help deliver the potential of IoT,"

This move of Samsung to partner with Sigfox would attract developers who are into building connected objects and are looking to finalise which communication protocol to embrace. Sigfox is also currently working on establishing its network in the U.S.  

The announcement of partnership with Samsung was made a few months after Sigfox raised $115 million, believed to be the largest round of venture capital in the history of France.  

Sigfox also said that it could have raised much more, but has decided to wait as it builds out its current network.

France's economic minister Emmanuel Macron, who was present in the media presentation, hailed the partnership and Sigfox's success as a milestone for the country's tech economy. The French government is on the drive of boosting the country's economy by encouraging more startup activity, and considers IoT as one of the innovation area and believes it can be competitive.

At the event, Samsung also announced that the company is opening an innovation center in Paris focused on its cloud offering and several software-based activities.

"We actually believe that there are incredible technology efforts happening in France, and that Samsung can take advantage of them. So we will keep investing in France", Young Sohn assured his French partners.