Toronto, Ontario–(June 8, 2016) – McRock Capital Corporation, a leading venture capital fund manager focused exclusively on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), announced the 3 category winners of the McRock IIoT Awards during its 5th Annual McRock IIoT Symposium in Montreal. The inaugural McRock IIoT awards program recognizes organizations and individuals in three categories; IIoT Private Company of the Year, IIoT Corporate Leader of the Year, and IIoT Influencer of the Year. The winners were selected by an industry-led judging committee. The judges for the 2016 awards were Ron Sege, Chairman and CEO of Echelon Corporation, Peter Williams, CTO of Big Green Innovations with IBM, and Peter Van Deventer, Chief Marketing Officer at Tessera Technologies.
McRock IIoT Private Company of the Year – Davra Networks
This award is presented to a privately held technology company that has demonstrated an IIoT product or service that has gained solid customer traction selling into industrial markets. Headquartered in Dublin Ireland, Davra Networks has developed a platform that firmly targets the connected transportation space by collecting and utilizing data from vehicles, infrastructure and connected sensors. Now used by over 60 customers worldwide including police forces, mass transit and railways, Davra is becoming the default when connecting anything with wheels.
McRock IIoT Corporate Leader of the Year – GE
This award is presented to a corporation driving IIoT adoption by demonstrating a unique and successful IIoT solution internally or with a customer. In 2012, GE’s Chairman & CEO Jeff Immelt got behind the term Industrial Internet to transform the multinational conglomerate, which traces its history back to Thomas Edison in 1878, into a digital industrial company. In 2015, GE announced the creation of GE Digital, a new unit intended to make digital the core foundation of GE’s operations. GE has lead the IIoT market with its Predix platform, a cloud-based service designed to meet the unique security, scale and speed requirements of industrial-strength machines. More than 7,500 developers from within and outside GE and its customers including Boeing, ConocoPhillips and Pitney Bowes are building on the Predix platform. To quote Jeff Immelt, “If you went to bed last night as an industrial company, you’re going to wake up this morning as a software and analytics company”.
McRock IIoT Influencer of the Year – Allan Alter, Senior Research Fellow at Accenture
This award is presented to an individual that has experienced success in the IIoT in some meaningful capacity such as a CEO setting strategy, a developer creating a product, and everything in between. Allan Alter is a senior research fellow specializing in the impact of technology on enterprises at the Accenture Institute for High Performance in Boston. He leads projects as part of the Institute’s global research agenda in the areas of information, technology strategy and digital business. In November 2015, Allan authored “Why the IIoT spells jobs for information technology professionals”. Allan’s work has been published in numerous business and technology publications, including the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Financial Times, and Bloomberg Businessweek. Allan has been a key researcher helping organizations understand the implications and opportunities as large industrial markets connect their physical and digital assets.
About the McRock IIoT Awards – The awards program was designed to recognize 3 categories of corporations and individuals advancing and impacting the direction of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) – Private Company of the Year, Corporate Leader of the Year and Influencer of the Year.
About McRock Capital – McRock is the first dedicated Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) venture capital fund focused on the intersection of sensors and software in large industrial markets. The McRock team has a unique background of building high-growth venture-backed IIoT companies while also having worked in the power, water, oil and gas industries. McRock is backed by several leading institutional investors as well as Cisco Systems and Électricité de France (EDF). Visit www.mcrockcapital.com or follow us on Twitter@McRockCapital.