Telco Spark New Zealand is set to buy just under 38 percent of Auckland-based environmental IoT provider Adroit for an undisclosed price.
The investment, which is intended to strengthen Spark’s internet of things market presence, will also give the company two director spots on Adroit’s five-person board.
Adroit’s solutions address key markets across aquaculture, agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and environmental compliance, providing monitoring and insights that aim to improve operational decision making.
Adroit CEO Blair Stewart said that the investment from Spark will help the company meet the increasing demand for environmental IoT monitoring. “Spark’s investment in Adroit and our close partnership enables us to meet this demand while continuing to operate as a specialist player,” he said.
The IoT company said one of the use cases for its solutions is helping plants or seafood to grow faster with less mortality, and reducing water or electricity use.
Spark IoT lead Tony Agar said that the move builds on the company’s previous partnership and outlined some of the previous work they have completed, “We worked together to implement a real-time water quality monitoring solution for Mercury NZ’s Waikato River catchment, and Adroit’s IoT solutions for air and water quality and soil and weather monitoring feature in our Innovation Studio, which we launched last year.”
Spark technology director Mark Beder added, “Our three-year strategy identifies IoT as a key future market, and in the last financial year we saw strong revenue growth and an 83% increase in connections.”
In February, the telco reported an overall revenue increase to $1.9 billion year over year, including a 21.8 percent growth in profit to $179 million.
It also announced a new infrastructure subsidiary, TowerCo, which will take ownership of its passive mobile tower assets, its 1500 mobile sites that support its active network assets including the core network and radio equipment.
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