Senet goes to Netmore amid ongoing IoT consolidation

In the Internet of Things (IoT) market, scale is critical. And that's why companies across the sector are shifting into merger-and-acquisition mode. The latest: Sweden's Netmore said it will acquire LoRa network operator Senet, which is based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

"A fragmented IoT connectivity market is beginning to consolidate," said Bruce Chatterley, Senet's CEO, in a release. "Netmore, Senet investors, and leadership view the timing of this strategic acquisition as an opportunity to establish a dominant market leadership position."

Both Senet and Netmore operate low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs) that are designed to provide inexpensive, slow-speed connections to gadgets ranging from utility meters to fire alarms.

The move will essentially double Netmore's size. Senet operates roughly 10,000 transmission sites in the US; Netmore counts 10,929 across Europe. As for devices, Senet counts around 400,000 active gadgets on its network, while Netmore has 552,000.

The acquisition of Senet positions Netmore as a global IoT player with a LoRa network stretching across 11 European markets – and now across the US.

The companies did not disclose the financial terms of their merger.

Flurry of M&A

As noted by RCR Wireless, Netmore has been working for years to consolidate LoRa network operations. With backing from Polar Structure and others, Netmore began snapping up European LoRa networks starting in 2019. Since then, it's been steadily growing its footprint throughout Europe.

"After our build-out of LoRaWAN in Europe, now covering 11 countries, this expansion into the US is a pivotal part of our growth strategy and aligned with our commitment to the deployment of infrastructure needed to support global business automation and sustainability initiatives," explained Ove Anebygd, Netmore's CEO, in a release.

Senet, for its part, was founded in 2009, and it has grown steadily in the space since then. The company declined to disclose specific revenues, but told Light Reading that its financials "can be characterized as strong year-over-year growth comprised of long-term recurring revenue contracts and a large contracted backlog."

Senet has also battled against other LoRa and IoT network operators in the US, including Helium, Comcast, Amazon and others.

Netmore isn't the only IoT player looking to get bigger. Other transactions in the space include Kore's purchase of Twilio's IoT business, Ericsson's sale of its IoT Accelerator and Connected Vehicle Cloud businesses to Aeris, Telit's acquisition of Thales' cellular IoT business, Semtech's acquisition of IoT vendor Sierra Wireless, Telit Cinterion's deal for Thales' IoT business, and Renesas Electronics' move for Sequans Communications.

A broad industry

"We have started to see consolidation in IoT ecosystem driven by the need for higher profits after years of witnessing fragmented growth in the industry, Senet acquisition by Netmore is an extension of this," Omdia analyst Shobhit Srivastava wrote in response to questions from Light Reading. Informa, Light Reading's parent company, also owns Omdia.

"The US is a growing market for IoT and applications like smart metering and utilities, asset management, smart building and smart agriculture," he added.

Srivastava explained that the network technology used by companies like Senet and Netmore – LoRa – is one of several options in the industry. "In the licensed space, cellular operators are playing catch-up with LTE-M and NB-IoT, which has started to gain some traction lately in regions outside China," he noted.

In the US, AT&T offers both LTE-M and NB-IoT network options. The operator said LTE-M has a higher bandwidth and lower latency compared to NB-IoT. 

Toward the end of last year, AT&T counted a whopping 122 million "connected" devices on its wireless network, which covers technologies ranging from 5G to NB-IoT. Those gadgets include tablets, monitoring devices and connected cars. More than half of AT&T's "connected device" net customer additions in its third quarter were connected cars.