Internet of Things. Suddenly “the Fridge started talking to the Washing Machine”

The unstoppable Internet connection

Fellow Funders wants to talk to you this week about a concept that is transforming the world, IOT (Internet of Things). 2017 is the year of the IoT – welcome to the new industrial revolution!

What does IOT mean? To quote the famous Wikipedia “IoT refers to the digital interconnection of objects with each other via INTERNET”:

Can you imagine a fridge capable of knowing the remaining food, connected to the kitchen where you have entered the menus you are going to prepare for the next few days and all this connected to your grocery shop for automatic ordering?

Can you imagine a watch that not only tells you the time but also allows you to be geolocated, exchange information with servers and is connected to your T-shirt so that you can keep track of your physical condition at all times and in the event of problems immediately notify your doctor?

If you have already Heard about any of these productos… Welcome to the IoT world!

The latest report by the consultancy firm GARTNER provides several figures that can give us an idea of the magnitude of the business that IoT can generate:

By the end of 2017, it is estimated that more than 8.3 billion devices will be connected to the Internet. By the end of 2020 this number will have increased to 20.4 billion. Three times more connected devices than people on the planet.

The revenue volume of IoT-related companies will reach USD 1.7 trillion in 2017. This figure will increase to USD 3 trillion by 2020.

One last figure to understand how close the IoT revolution is to us: if you go to the world’s most famous marketplace, AMAZON, and type in “IoT”, 1,895 reviews appear… A really high number indeed.

The impact of IoT

In our world and in our environment, it is going to be much greater than what the digital era produced at the time. IoT opens up a world of incalculable possibilities and the business figures that will be generated could certainly be unimaginable. We are talking about applications in the world of medicine, smart cities, new forms of transport, a transformation of our leisure time, etc. The only limit seems to be our imagination.

However, one aspect is of particular concern to Fellow Funders: are we in Spain adequately training the future professionals that this new industrial revolution we are witnessing is going to demand? Where are the future specialists in IoT Architecture, Data Scientist, UX/UI Designer… studying?

This week at Fellow Funders we attended the presentation of a report by the COTEC Foundation for Innovation on the Internet of Things. Two of its conclusions have caught our attention:

The scarcity of specific educational provision for IoT is noticeable at international level. Only five EU countries have specific degrees: two degrees in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany, and one degree in France and Finland.
If the European educational offer is scarce, in Spain the problem is certainly alarming. Spain does not offer any specific degree courses in this IoT environment and the offer of specific programmes is very limited.

Finally, the Spanish educational offer in IoT does not correspond in any case to the increase in demand for the type of profiles needed for the new revolution that is already taking place. Is this worrying? In Fellow Funders‘ opinion, this is one of the most important problems that could have a very negative impact on Spain’s economic development.

The way forward

Fellow Funders continues thinking that we all have to help to reindustrialise Spain and the only way to achieve this is by strengthening Innovation. Can we talk about strengthening innovation and not provide specific information for the new professionals that the IoT world is going to demand? The answer is certainly NO.

However, at Fellow Funders they are also learning about new initiatives that are appearing at the level of specific training and some of them seem very interesting. Among others, the new MIOTI Institute or the Innovation Grants for people with disabilities from Santander Universities and the Universia Foundation. These are initiatives that should be highlighted and that we should all support and recognise.

In addition, Fellow Funders does not want to be oblivious to the business opportunities that the IoT revolution can provide them as investors. In the coming weeks they will present some projects that are directly linked to IoT. Therefore, we encourage you to analyse them carefully and, above all, to let your imagination run wild. We cannot be oblivious to the new industrial revolution that is taking place – it is a world full of opportunities!

And remember that the best way to reduce the risk of your alternative investment portfolio is diversification.

Join the world of Fellow Funders. We are waiting for you!