1248 is a Cambridge, U.K. based b2b startup, founded last year, to sell Internet of Things related consultancy, software and services to other companies wanting help to scale up connected devices platforms.
It’s just closed a £250,000 ($415,000) seed round, its first external funding, with the investment coming from serial telco entrepreneur Rob Dobson. Dobson also takes up the position of chair of the 1248 board.
Prior to this seed, the startup was being funded by the founders who have links to the University of Cambridge’s Computer Lab (which retains a 1% undilutable share in 1248).
On the consultancy side, 1248 offers expertise in building IoT platforms that can scale. On the product side it offers scalable service components for the IoT — such as Geras: a Time-Series Database, which it says allows users to trickle in data from many sensors and pull out “views” in their application.
“1248 customers are experts in their vertical field,” the startup says. “They know how to make hardware (e.g. sensors) and how to add value to the data from that hardware (e.g. applications). 1248 provides the infrastructure to allow them to focus on what they know best, rather than wasting time re-inventing the wheel.”
The spectrum of services 1248 offers covers service design, to build apps and services to allow users to interact with devices; firmware development, offering embedded software for low-power edge devices and comms gateways; and advice on IoT data network comms protocols.
It’s not currently breaking out customer numbers.
1248 co-founders, Toby Jaffey and Pilgrim Beart, bring plenty of relevant experience to the venture. Beart, has co-founded connected product companies activeRF, antenova, Splashpower and AlertMe, while Jaffey has more than a decade’s experience designing and developing connected devices, gateways and services at Polatis, AlertMe, RealVNC, HyperTag and Amino.
1248 says competitors in this space include the likes of EvryThng, Xively and ThingWorx — but it notes it’s generally early days for the IoT, and say its differentiating factor vs rivals is the related experience of its co-founders.
1248 has also been involved in a project to help create an open standard (called HyperCat) to enable IoT applications and services to work together automatically — as part of a project funded by the U.K. government’s Technology Strategy Board.
Commenting on 1248’s funding in a statement, Dobson said: “The Internet of Things wave is building and 1248 is in an ideal position to help companies break down vendor silos and implement open IoT solutions at scale.
“1248 is one of the few start-ups whose founders have real experience of taking connected products to market in the millions and have a real practical and scalable approach to harnessing the opportunities presented by the IoT.”
The U.K. government recently announced it would be putting £46 million more into related research and startups by 2015 — so there’s a little more cash and impetus sloshing around the space in the U.K.