Unlocking Value Through Strategic Partnerships: Insights from Iotacomm’s CEO

Welcome to FinTech TV.

I'm Amy Blair.

Iotacom and Revert Technologies are teaming up to revolutionize energy savings without costly retrofits or complex IT.

Now their breakthrough solution combines reverts AI powered energy management with Iotacom's secure Delphi 360 platform.

From school districts to commercial buildings, this innovative tech brings scalable instant impact.

Joining us for episode 2 of Connected for Impact is Terrence DiFranco, CEO of Io.com.

Terrence, so great to have you here today.

It's great to be back, Remy.

Thanks so much for having me.

Well, first and foremost, I do want to ask you about the role that strategic partnerships play here.

So how does this help your vision?

Yeah, so generally, you know, what we do is focus on the things that we do best.

So the first thing is that we've got this core crown jewel asset or license spectrum.

Um, we add unique capabilities around it, so we built that to create the first licensed ROA standard, so this is a low power wide area network wireless network.

And so the idea is focus on those as key capabilities around data analytics and so now as we've essentially laid that as the foundation, the goal.

Really to try to find partners that can help us on that whole go to market strategy.

So our focus on smart buildings, smart cities, we look for innovators such as revert Technologies to really play a role in differentiating us even further.

So this is exactly plays right into the strategy, what we've built from an asset base capabilities and go to market and then look for the partners like River.

And Terrence, for our viewers out there, tell us a little bit more about Del Pi 360 and how it helps support as well as integrate third party solutions.

So Delphi 360 is a cloud-based platform for smart buildings and smart cities.

We'd like to refer to the platform as essentially an 80% built solution for end users, meaning that all of the infrastructure is in place.

It's built.

AWS, so all the cloud infrastructure, the ability to take in sensor data like all of that, those pieces have been put together by us.

So now as we start to plug and play with unique partners that can drive unique value for those end users, that's really where Delphi shines.

So the value proposition for our customers is that there's already a very hardened.

A pre-built platform for these types of applications for our partners, it's great because it's really plug and play for them, so all of the security, everything is already built into it.

So for their go to market, a lot less cost, a lot easier to do, they can focus on the things that they do best and so that's really what makes the partnership work so great.

So Delphi was built specifically for plug and play for partners.

And I think the key word here is value and impact as well.

So the intersection of value and impact, can you give us an example of a partner collaboration that actually unlocked new value?

Yeah, so the two key partnerships that we just recently announced, so the first one was Telus, they have outdoor and indoor air quality sensors, best of breed, we announced a partnership with them back in May and The thing that's great about tell us is that they have a very modular form to their sensors so they could really meet a lot of growing needs in the marketplace.

They have a tremendous subject matter expertise around the benefits of air quality and so we've implemented them onto our network.

Previously they were operating on cellular for their.

Outdoor sensors and so it was very expensive and they were really confined to places where there was already cellular coverage.

So what Iotacom gives them is number one, a great network at a much lower cost for them to be able to deploy, but then implementing that into Delphi really starts opening up more opportunities for them.

In the whole go to market strategy, we're actually working with them on their indoor air quality sensors being a part of our solution on Delphi as we go into K through 12 and manufacturing.

And so there's a great win-win there where as a network service provider, companies like Tellus really benefit from the connectivity.

Shifting off of cellular, but at the same time it's great for our customers where we get to use that unique innovation that they've developed to benefit our end users, and the same thing is true with reverse.

This is a truly innovative solution.

It's a smart plug that helps customers reduce energy costs.

They have a great model where they're partnering with the local utilities to provide incentives to the customer to adopt the solution.

So again, it's a great plug and play for them.

Imagine.

Their solution previously worked on Wi Fi.

So imagine you have to go into your customer and say, OK.

We have this great plug that can help you save all of this energy, etc.

By the way, can we use your Wi Fi network and obviously that lengthens the sales cycle, etc. but operating on our network, they're able to go in essentially just layer right over the top and not have to necessarily integrate with the customer's infrastructure.

So it's a great way for them to overcome it by switching to Laura WA versus Wi Fi, but again, Implementing it into our Delphi platform, we can now offer K through 12 schools, manufacturers, hospitality, our addressable segments that unique solution.

So just in both cases, the idea was helping them on their go to market with our network but then implementing it into the Delphi 360 platform for our customers.

It's a tremendous model that helps us stay focused on the things we do best.

And speaking of which.

I understand that partnerships are key and integral to your business model.

So how do you help customers reach new markets and also how do you reach different customers more efficiently here?

Yeah, so it really is these partnerships are terrific for us.

So these are two instances where we have innovative hardware companies that we've identified and again this is where our subject matter expertise of understanding some of the markets and and really the whole ecosystem around sensors.

To be able to identify great unique partners.

The key to all of this, even when you're looking at technology integration and impact on markets, at the end of the day, it really does come around culture as well.

So it's not only having their capabilities married to ours, but it's also that cultural fit where we're actually looking at making impact together.

So we take that as a as a strategy that's what I think makes long term very healthy partnerships.

We're really viewing markets together and marrying those capabilities.

On the back end of it though, we have partnerships with other technology companies that actually help us in bringing this unique network to market.

So Semtech is a Major chip company SMTC is their stock symbol.

We have a great partnership with them.

It's their technology that underlies the entire LAA standard and so working collaboratively with them is ultimately what helped us actually go to market in the first place, but now as we continue on our R&D path, that's just adding more capabilities.

So that's one example of the partnerships that we can create on the back end of our business that ultimately end up helping those other partners on the front end such as River and Telo.

So it's really a great way at the end of the day, I mean all of this adds up to just a better value and better user experience for our end markets, but we all, the key in all of those instances is that we view these markets the same.

And Terrence, you bring up a lot of key points there including corporate culture.

We know that is very important when it comes to management.

So finally, for our potential investors out there, why should they care about Iotacom's ecosystem of partners?

Yeah, so all of this adds up into what we think is really the next generation around infrastructure.

100 years ago, the railroads created tremendous economic opportunity.

Uh, the interstate highway system in the 50s created a unique opportunity, economic opportunity.

The internet 25, 30 years ago created a lot of economic benefits and so we see ourselves really in that same lineage where our unique connectivity can create these huge economic advantages.

The beauty for what we're doing is the fact that, you know, very low cost, there really isn't a downside to what we do.

And if you go back and look at those examples, there were trade-offs, of course there always are, but in our case, it's really hard to find the negative trade-off and so this is all about sustainability, this is all about impact, it's all about leveraging the next generation of digitalization.

And here at the New York Stock Exchange, you know, it's even more tangible in knowing that the capital markets are really looking for companies to provide that level of transparency into how they do things and so we only help companies be able to realize those goals.

So there's definitely. the impactful side just purely from a profit standpoint.

There's an impactful side from a community standpoint, but then as you look at our customers' constituents, especially like I said here, they're being measured by how they're performing, and this is just more data to be able to provide to those markets.

OK, Terrence, well thank you so much for joining me here at the New York Stock Exchange and for sharing the story of Iotacom and the partners.

Thank you so much for having me.

My pleasure.

Thank you.