Participants in the edge computing market include tech giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Dell EMC, Cisco, HPE and Intel. However, we are also witnessing newer players coming into the market with innovative edge-focused offerings, that are attracting capital from both independent venture capital firms and the venture arms of the biggest players. CIR believes that there will be a growing number of new companies entering edge computing with venture funds competing for a stake in this high-growth market.
EdgeConneX: EdgeConneX already operates more than 40 data centers in 32 regions across North America, Europe and Latin America. It is however focused on the US – the epicenter of edge computing growth – with data centers in 26 locations. What makes growth prospects of EdgeConneX great is that it has partnered with MSPs and cloud providers such as Logix, Rackspace Technology, NetFoundry, AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud.
EdgeConneX’s acquisition by EQT infrastructure in August 2020 increased its valuation to more than a billion as the deal is estimated to be worth between $2.5 billion and $3 billion. In addition, CIR believes that EdgeConneX’s Far Edge Data Center solutions, which includes edge PoP capabilities is ideal for building data centers in congested cities and locations (such as electric-vehicle charging points). This offering from EdgeConneX can also help it gain traction in the self-driven vehicles space.
FogHorn: FogHorn is among the few major players with a core focus on edge AI and analytics. The company has successful collaborated with key IoT solution providers such as Google, AWS, Dell EMC and Uptake. It has received funding of $72.5 million from several venture capital funds as well as venture/funding arms of technology majors such as Dell Technologies Capital, Intel Capital, Honeywell Ventures, GE Ventures, and Robert Bosch Venture Capital.
We believe FogHorn’s growth of nearly 10X in annual license bookings in 2019 compared to the previous year is illustrative what is expected commercially from edge AI and analytics players and the tremendous growth they can expect.
Mutable: Mutable received funding of $1.5 million in March 2020 from Fly Ventures and Lunar Ventures among others. While this funding is lower than what some other edge computing vendors have attracted, CIR believe Mutable’s solution is positioned for growth.
Mutable provides a microservices PaaS solution for developers, cable operators and other service providers, and its software platform runs on operators’ existing servers. In our recent edge computing report (link here?) CIR identified how the XaaS business could prove a major opportunity for the edge computing sector. Mutable’s platform allows developers to deploy their apps to end-users without having to maintain their own cloud footprint.
Vapor IO: Vapor IO is in the micro data center business focused on mobile edge computing (MEC). The company’s small data centers are positioned at wireless aggregation hubs, which provide customers with edge colocation and interconnection services. This is what we believe may offer Vapor IO a growth opportunity in the coming years. The company raised $90 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total amount raised to date to more than $100 million.
Vapor IO has plans to reach a total of 36 U.S. cities with multiple edge computing locations in each market by the end of 2021. The company is backed by Crown Castle, which has more than 40,000 cell towers and around 80,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions. Vapor IO can leverage this to grow rapidly and reach its targets.
Swim.ai: One company in the edge analytics space that we are closely following is Swim.ai. the company, founded in 2015 and with a funding of $25.4 million to date, offers edge-based software that executes real-time analytics and machine learning for enterprises, equipment manufacturers, smart cities and IoT businesses.
Given the expected growth of edge analytics we believe that Swim.ai will see rapid growth. Swim.ai open core platform will see demand from operators, enterprise and application developers alike.
