Ecofactor (http://www.ecofactor.com/) provides automated energy savings, comfort and control through energy efficiency, demand response and HVAC performance monitoring services. Ecofactor holds 26 issued US patents including one design patent regarding thermostat. In assessment of the commercial importance (e.g., potential commercial implementation or licensing potential), Ecofactor patents ranked second following Samsung Electronics among top 10 innovators in the smart home patent landscape research.

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Internet of Things (IoT) M&A Target Candidates Insights from Patents
Alex G. Lee (alexglee@techipm.com)
https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/2853055
SmartHomeEnergyManagement
Ecofactor(http://www.ecofactor.com/) provides automated energy savings, comfort and controlthrough energy
efficiency, demand responseand HVAC performance monitoring services. Ecofactorholds 26 issued US patents
including one design patent regarding thermostat. In assessment of the commercial importance (e.g., potential
commercial implementation or licensing potential), Ecofactorpatents ranked second following Samsung
Electronics among top 10 innovators in the smart home patent landscape research.
Allure Energy (https://www.allure-energy.com/) is a smart home energy management companybased in Austin,
Texas. Allure Energy develops leading-edge smart energy management solutions for many IoT applications. Allure
Energy holds 22 issued US patents. Significant number of forward citations shows the high quality of the family
patents. Especially, many patents of most key industry players including Google (Nest Lab), GE and Honeywell in
the smart energy management heavily cited Allure Energy patents.
SmartHomeAutomation

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Neura (http://www.theneura.com/) provides the intelligence IoT platform and human-centered smart home
application solutions. Neura patent application US20150019714 illustrates the adaptable autonomous smart home
system. The adaptable autonomous smart home system can recognize the contextual or semantic profiling of a
personor place or devices (physical environment) based on sensed data by the IoT devices. The adaptable
autonomous smart home system determines particular interpretation instructions (define particular IoT device
control rules) that are associated with the particular physical environment and dynamically updates the control
rules for changing physical environment.
Pie Digital (http://piedigital.com/) provides cloud-based services for smart home applications. Pie Digital patent
application US20140201340 illustrates the smart home system that can dramatically simplify and automate the
configuration, maintenance and integration of the IoT devices in the home and office.
SmartHomePersonal Care
Jibo (https://www.jibo.com/) provides the world’s first social robotfor the home (demo video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N1Q8oFpX1Y). Jibo patent application US20140277735 illustrates the
friendly, helpful and intelligent home robotthat can adapt to reside continually in the environment of a person and
to interact with a user. Jibo can provide emotional engagement with the user. Jibo can senseand respond and learn
as the user engage with Jibo.

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Affectiva (http://www.affectiva.com/) is an emotion sensing technology company that grew out of MIT’s Media
Lab. Affectiva patent application US20140200463 illustrates a practical possibility of implementation of emotion-
aware smart home IoT applications by determining well-being status from an analysis of facial information and
physiological information of an individual.
Connected Cars
INRIX (http://inrix.com/) analyzes traffic and movement data from 100’s of data sources including the most robust
crowd-sourced network of 175 million vehicles and devices. INRIX patent application US20150035666 illustrates
the system for monitoring the user driving behavior in various driving contexts, and presenting driving suggestions
of alternative driving behaviors. The presentation of the alternative driving behaviors to the user can facilitate
changes in user driving behavior that improve the safety, efficiency, and/or comfort of the driving experience.
Zubie (http://zubie.com/) was formed in 2012 as a joint venture between Best Buy and Open Air Equity Partners.
Since began with a focus on connected car applications for consumers in the US, and has expanded globally into
services for insurers, small businesses, large fleets and auto dealers. US20140167983 illustrates an integration of
the smart home and connected car system. Smart home system includes home smart appliance networks, home
smart energy systems, smart lighting system and others. The smart home system can include sensors or
components that are physically located at different places throughout the home and are in communication with a
central "command center" that consolidates information from each of the sensor/components whether a particular

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entry door, window, or garage dooris opened, or whether a motion sensorhas sensed any motion, or whether a
particular light or set of lights is off/on or a current temperature of the house
Connected Healthcare
Bobo Analytics (http://www.mybobo.com) is a smart healthcare technology and data analytics company for
performance optimization. Bobo Analytics patent application US20140073486 illustrates the physiological
measurement systems for continuous health and fitness monitoring. A lightweight wearable system is provided to
collect various physiological data continuously from a wearer without the need for a chest strap. The system also
enables monitoring of the physiological parameters in addition to heart rate including bodytemperature, heart rate
variability, motion, sleep, stress, fitness level, recovery level, effect of a workout routine on health, caloric
expenditure. The system enables automatic interpretation of the physiological parameters to assess the
cardiovascular intensity experienced by a user.
Hello (https://hello.is) builds hardware and software to help people live better through understanding themselves
and the world around them. Founded in 2012 and based in San Francisco, California. Hello is a team of designers,
engineers, and operations staff. US20140249760 illustrates the system including wearable or portable monitoring
device that can detect user's activities, behaviors, habit information, and health. The monitoring system determines
user's melanin level.

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IoT Security
Zscaler (https://www.zscaler.com/) is a global cloud-based information security company. Zscaler patent
application US20140208426 illustrates the system for dynamic cloud-based malware behavior analysis. The cloud-
based behavioral analysis system includes nodes that communicatively coupled to the users. The nodes perform
inline monitoring and malware detection and preclusion.
IoT Big Data Analytics
Bit Stew Systems (http://www.bitstew.com/) provides the premier platform for handling complex data integration,
data analysis, and predictive automation for connected devices on the Industrial Internet. In the electricity supply
industry, a typical advanced metering infrastructure network comprises millions of smart meters, each containing
multiple hardware and software elements, sending hundreds of millions of data points per day through a variety of
communications networks to an array of back-office systems. Bit Stew Systems patent application
US20150213035 illustrates the big data analytics system for organizing, searching and accessing data created by
multiple disparate data sources within a utility supply system.
Cloud for IoT
EVRYTHNG (https://evrythng.com/) provides the IoT cloud platform that connects any consumer productto the
Web and manages real-time data to drive applications. EVRYTHNG patent application US20140181256 illustrates
the system that can compute the object identifier and contextual information based on pre-defined set of rules and

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map the object identifier and contextual information to an entry point associated with a specific computer
application. The system provides access to the specific the application to the end-user through the cloud services.
IoT FinTech
PayRange (https://www.payrange.com/) provides the credit card solutions for machines. PayRange patent
application US20150227928 illustrates the mobile-device-to-machine payment system for facilitating a cost-
effective and easy-to-use cashless transaction for purchase of products orservices by a user from a payment
accepting unit such as vending, parking meters, luggage carts, transit ticketing, laundromats and amusement.