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How the ‘internet of things’ is poised to boom across Asia
Anis Uzzaman, general partner and founding member of Fenox Venture Capital
Anis Uzzaman is the general partner and founding member of Silicon Valley-based Fenox Venture Capital. He serves as the CEO overlooking the firm’s management and operations. At Tech in Asia Singapore 2015 today, Uzzaman took to the stage to deliver a keynote speech on Silicon Valley trends and how they can relate to us over here in Asia.
Now’s the time to put your hardware online
The Internet of Things (IoT) is something that everyone, startups and investors alike, should be getting into, said Uzzaman in his keynote. “With IoT, you can be very different, and you can build a unique product,” he says. He told the audience why they shouldn’t be reinventing the wheel in areas like chat apps, traditional ecommerce models, etc.
In 2014, 14.2 billion devices became connected to internet, says Uzzaman. So far in 2015, that number has grown to 15.8 billion, and will continue to rise quickly. According to him, by 2020, IoT will represent a US$1.9 trillion component of the global economy. Uzzaman says Fenox has made a few plays in this space, one of which was its decision to invest in EDYN, a smart garden system that tracks environmental conditions.
Areas of improvement
Uzzaman says that IoT can help the world improve in many ways. He says that new healthcare IT is the wave of the future in terms of solutions for hospitals, children, and elderly people.
Additionally, the manufacturing industry is teed up to benefit from IoT. Production management is something that can be improved dramatically all over the world. Uzzaman also says the possibilities for IoT aiding retail businesses is nearly limitless.
See: Japan’s Ecomott was pioneering IoT before it was cool
Wearables are poised to grow wildly in popularity in the US and Asia alike, says Uzzaman. For this reason, Fenox invested in a company called META, a firm that is at the forefront of augmented reality. “This is a startup that came out of Y Combinator about two years ago. They have already become very very big in Silicon Valley,” explains Uzzaman.
Uzzaman also believes that wearables are the next frontier. He gives honorable mentions to Jawbone’s fitness band, and to Google for patenting a digital deodorant. Additionally, he laudes Google for looking into a possible cure for cancer in the form of a wearable. He says:
The idea is that you wear the device on your arm and it produces acoustics that hit your blood cells in a way so that they won’t produce enzymes that cause cancer.
(Disclosure: Fenox VC and Y-Combinator invest in Tech in Asia. See our ethics page)
This is part of the coverage of Tech in Asia Singapore 2015, our event running on May 6 and 7.
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