Daikin Applied Americas has taken a minority stake in Riptide IO, a company that connects, manages and automates building equipment via the Internet of Things (IoT). Terms of the deal, including the size the share being taken by Daikin, were not disclosed.
The press release says that the two partnered in the development of Daiken Intelligent Equipment, an IoT- and cloud-based platform for HVAC equipment.
The deal is another illustration of how the IoT is impacting energy distribution and management – and how vendors and service providers are positioning themselves as the changes accelerate. Recently, The IBM Center for Applied Insights said that by 2020 there could be 925 million smart meters, 2.54 million smart lights and 1.53 billion utility-managed connected devices. Gartner said that there will be 6.4 billion “connected things” next year and 20.8 billion by 2020.
