Kerlink invests in IoT data storage company

The Microshare product provides a highly scalable data management solution that enables sharing, storage and controlling access in a highly scalable architecture, while maintaining privacy, security, confidentiality and context through a ready-built single set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The solution can be used as a cloud service or embedded inside a more complete offering.

For Kerlink, the Microshare relationship supports its strategy of moving up the IoT value chain, beyond its core network infrastructure and operations expertise, and of expanding the range of its value-added services.

The agreement enhances its network-as-a-service model by strengthening its customers - IoT network owners and operators - ability to store data in the cloud and create new value streams by precisely managing sharing of data with recipients, while keeping it secure.

Microshare also helps expand Kerlink’s footprint in the US and the UK, where it has a subsidiary.

“Microshare and Kerlink are highly complementary companies, both from a product standpoint and a geographical footprint,” said Kerlink's Co-founder and CEO William Gouesbet.

“Kerlink’s leading position as a provider of turnkey solutions for deploying and operating LoRaWAN networks is strengthened by Microshare’s ability to store, annotate and share the right data with the right party, at scale, in the cloud, on-premises and at the edge. Microshare’s presence in the US and the United Kingdom will support Kerlink’s growth in both those key markets.”

“This investment demonstrates that leading players in the IoT ecosystem now realise the value of data sharing,” said Ron Rock, Co-founder and CEO of Microshare. “While significant progress has been made on the devices and networks over the past few years, the industry now sees that the only way to create new revenue streams is to make it easy for clients to share the data from connected devices. Kerlink has an established trust relationship with many of the world’s largest networks, whose owners need proven solutions for the data-management challenges they face.”

The company’s core product, Microshare, provides data management solutions that enable users to easily store the massive data volumes generated by connected IoT devices and to apply business rules and context to share that data with the right parties at the right time, thereby creating new revenue streams. Doing this at scale against the backdrop of personal and corporate privacy concerns and compliance with regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), requires new paradigms and techniques pioneered by Microshare.

Yannick Delibie, Kerlink CTIO and Co-founder, said the partnership with Microshare supports Kerlink’s strategy to simplify the customer experience when deploying an end-to-end IoT solution by accelerating the integration with market leading Application Enablement Platforms (AEPs).

“The critical fundaments of an IoT application, potentially enriched by Big Data and AI, are connectivity, high quality and availability, combined with reliable data collection, transport and delivery, including secured sharing and privacy management,” Delibie said. “This strong partnership with Microshare brings to the market a high level of smart and secure IoT data management.”

Microshare is Kerlink’s first investment in another company. Details of the investment were not disclosed. This investment has been made for a limited amount and opens the door to Kerlink for a potential further investment in Microshare’s next round of funding.