Since the FIWARE re search and innovation pro­gramme was established in 2011, a number of

advanced technologies supporting the develop­ment of innovative services and applications in

the Future Internet domain have been designed and implemented by major European industry stake­

holders. In this context, various so­called FIWARE ­Generic­ and­ Specific­ Enablers­ have­ been­ developed­ to­

provide the required networking features and make them available for integration with innovative Internet services and applications. By following this approach, future service and app­lication­ ­providers­ can­ focus­ on­ developing­ their­ specific­ features while for other common Future Internet functionalities they can rely on FIWARE Enablers and simply integrate their own developments with FIWARE to create complete ready­for­ market solutions.

About 1,000 innovative startups and SMEs took the opportunity offered­by­the­­FIWARE­Accelerate­programme­and­performed­their own Future Internet product development by using FIWARE Generic­and­Specific­Enablers.­Accordingly,­a­­large­­number­of­new­­ FIWARE­ enabled Future Inter net products have been success­fully crea ted and tested. Among all the companies which ­developed­­FIWARE-enabled­services­and­applications,­a­signifi­cant number of them already gained attention from potential investors or have entered the market.

Within the overall FIWARE programme, the FI Business project has focused on providing support to startups and SMEs in identifying business opportunities for their FIWARE enabled products and for approaching potential investors they need to launch or enlarge their business. Concrete ly, the FI Business project organized a number of boot camps, e­ pitches, investment forums, business workshops, and matchmaking events including one­to­one consulting service for start ups.

In the scope of its project activities, FI Business continuous­ly monitored the progress of start ups/SMEs in the FIWARE Accelerate programme. A number of these companies had not only successfully developed technical solutions and products, but­had­already­launched­their­commer­cial­offerings.

This brochure presents some selected Future Internet Business Success Stories, companies which successfully participated in the FIWARE Accelerate programme and had already made promising steps towards estab lishing themselves with their FIWARE­ enabled products and services on the market. These success stories document the variety of sectors and applica­tions as well as the innovative spirit of European startups. We hope­ readers­will­ find­ these­ success­ stories­ ­interesting­ and­ inspiring.

SUCCESS STORIES

Introduction

2

BeeZon

BeeZon Smart Software IoT Solutions was founded in 2015. It is a Greek company that intends to bring the power of the Internet of Things to real life. The main company pro­duct focuses on agriculture, where related production pro­cesses­could­be­significantly­enhanced­by­using­capabilities­of today and future electronic devices and communications networks. The particular company focus is on beekeepers, to enable remote control of their apiaries and help them make smart management decisions, while interacting with the bees as little as possible.

The­ BeeZon­ team­ consists­ of­ five­members­ having­more­than ten years of experience in software and hardware de­velopment as well as business administration. Their passi­on and environmental consciousness has allowed BeeZon to create strong products that appeal to the needs of both the era of sustainable agriculture and the competitive mar­ket in agriculture.

Being environmentally aware and passionate with bees, BeeZon­ explored­ the­ difference­ that­ could­ be­ made­ through technology and IoT in apiculture (beekeeping). Climate change, including relatively high temperatures over­winter­periods­and­intense­rainfalls,­has­affected­the­entire eco system and especially beekeeping. The timing of­ ­nectar-flows­ is­unstable,­and­ the­natural­ resources­are­scarce. Therefore, the bees can be starving or dying so that professional beekeepers could lose their entire bee populations within a short time. In order to sustain their business, the bee keepers are forced to practice migratory beekeeping,­ hunting­nectar­ flows­ across­ large­ geographi­cal areas based on past experience only, requiring more

personnel re sources involved, transportation, losses of whole bee colonies, etc.

To respond to these needs, BeeZon developed a solution for a Virtual Bee Consultant called “BeeZon Real­Time Continuous Apiary Monitoring System”, using FIWARE tech­

Virtual Bee Consultant

was developed in

FIWARE

BeeZon team

3

nology. BeeZon’s continuous monitoring system brings the power of the Internet of Things to the area of beekeeping by following precision apiculture methodologies. Thus, the beekeepers may have an insight of the colony’s status and dynamics in order to increase productivity and decrease operational costs.

In summary, the Virtual Bee Consultant enables beekeepers to continuously gather real­time data, providing remote monitoring and control over the following aspects:

• Time­management­of­nectar­flows

• Insight on colony status, colony dynamics and colony hygiene

• Inspection of queen­less and swarming states

• Food storage reserves’ management

• Anti­theft mechanism and tracking system

• Notification­system­tailor­made­by­the­user

BeeZon Monitoring status and colony dynamics

4

BeeZon software integrates FIWARE technologies, its cloud services and wi­reless sensor capabilities. A network of wireless sensors is deployed in an area of beekeeping interest, measuring both colony and environmental variables and transmitting them for further analysis to the Beezon platform via Internet. The knowledge of FIWARE technologies has become an important asset for the com­pany, which can be used in future pro­jects and business activities.

The FIWARE Accelerate programme has been strategically important for BeeZon, as

it provided an open technology ecosystem enabling the develop ment of the Virtual Bee­Consultant.­The­tools­offered­by­FIWA­RE were very helpful in the development of the BeeZon platform. Further more, the fact that no equity funding was re quired in the FIWARE programme was of great importan­ce for BeeZon.

Although Beezon is very young in the preci sion apiculture market, a substantial market penetra tion has already been achieved. Negotiations with 47 poten­tial customers have been started in ad­dition to 33 already existing customers. In

BeeZon tracking system

BeeZon mobile interface

BeeZon software

integrates several

FIWARE technologies.

The FIWARE

Accelerate programme

has been strategically

important for BeeZon.

5

addition, BeeZon is in talks with a global partner to create synergies­ via­ an­ intended­ service­ to­ be­ offered­ on­ large­ scale in the future.

The FI­Business project provided valuable means for continuous improvement in several business related topics through workshops, seminars, investor pitching, and

coaching sessions. Furthermore, BeeZon’s participa tion in a wide European network such as the FIWARE ecosystem provided an opportunity to be exposed to a wide audience of promising startups, top industry professionals, lea­ding experts, successful entrepreneurs, and international investors.

Interaction with

FIWARE community

contributed to team’s

skills’ enrichment and

greater exposure.

14

[--BOXSTART--]

BeeZonsoftwareintegratesseveralFIWAREtechnologies.

[--BOXEND--]

BeeZonsoftwareintegratesFIWAREtechnologies,itscloudservicesandwirelesssensorcapabilities.Anetworkofwirelesssensorsisdeployedinanareaofbeekeepinginterest,measuringbothcolonyandenvironmentalvariablesandtransmitting themfor furtheranalysis to theBeezonplatformviaInternet.TheknowledgeofFIWAREtechnologieshasbecomean importantassetforthecompany,whichcanbeusedinfutureprojectsandbusinessactivities.

[VirtualBeeConsultantandFIWAREtechnologies]

[--BOXSTART--]

TheFIWAREAccelerateprogrammehasbeenstrategicallyimportantforBeeZon.

[--BOXEND--]

TheFIWAREAccelerateprogrammehasbeen strategically important forBeeZon,as itprovidedanopen technology ecosystem enabling the development of the Virtual Bee Consultant. The toolsofferedbyFIWAREwereveryhelpfulinthedevelopmentoftheBeeZonplatform.Furthermore,thefact thatnoequity fundingwasrequired in theFIWAREprogrammewasofgreat importance foraBeeZon.

Virtual Bee Consultant and FIWARE technologies

6

Breeze

Breeze was founded in Germany in 2015 by Robert Heinecke (CEO), Sascha Kuntze (CTO), and Jan Rübbelke (Head of Embedded Electronics). As air pollution is one of the biggest challenges of modern life, Breeze focuses on helping various stake holders and communities, such as corporate organizations and cities, to understand what is happening in the air around­ them,­ how­ it­ affects­ employees­and citizens, and what can be done to improve the overall air pollution situa­tion. Breeze’s motivation is based on the fact that, according to the World Health Organization, air pollution causes more than seven million deaths every year. The annual economic damage to the Euro pean Union alone is estimated at more than 1.4 trillion euro annually.

In FIWARE, Breeze has developed an innovative cloud plat­form able to gather and analyse large amounts of available data on the air quality in real time. Based on the gathered data,­ the­ ­platform­ provides­ visualization­ and­ notification­capabilities as well as insights and behavioural suggestions, which can be accessed and used by interested stakeholders and communities. The platform customers receive access via a yearly subscription model, together with option to use Bree­ze’s own IoT­enabled next­generation air quality sensors. In addition, with its Adaptive Cloud Calibration algorithms, Breeze is also able to increase measurement accuracy com­pared with other available solutions in the area.

The Breeze analytics suite for smart cities is built upon several FIWARE components. Some of them are used in development and testing, some of them in the live environ­ment. Cloud APIs are realized with the de­facto standard NGSI using Orion. The openData platform CKAN is used to publish and consume environmental data for the public, whereas­ the­CitySDK­data­ ­models­define­how­we­ interact­with the data generated by the city’s cyber physical system.

Breeze is already working together with a number of German companies on deploying and testing next­ generation air quality monitoring networks and is part of several smart

Breeze team

Cloud platform,

based on FIWARE

components

to gather and analyze

data on air quality

7

building and smart city initiatives, including Fraunhofer IAO’S Morgenstadt initiative, which aims to shape the future of cities.

Breeze participated in the Green Innovation and Invest­ment Forum on the invitation, organized by the FI Business project. At these occasions, it was possible to establish new relations­to­other­startups­in­similar­fields­and­present­the­Breeze solution to interested stakeholders.

Breeze is part of

the Fraunhofer IAO

Morgenstadt initiative.

FI Business events

helped to establish

new relations.

Breeze user interface