Top IoT Hardware and Development Companies in Europe

What we are looking at is the sweet spot between price, quality, speed and aftersales services for rugged, industry grade, IoT. Speed is important; longer timelines mean higher cost and your pet project falling out of management’s good graces. The globals might say: We can throw more resources at it. Ultimately you will pay for those resource inputs.

Before we hit the key points, I want to add some relevant notes. We’ve read a lot of posts saying Ireland is a key IoT development location because it is a base for US tech multinationals that do IoT (correlation, not causation). This is “cart before the horse thinking.” Multinationals are in Ireland for tax purposes, to hold a nearshore footprint in Europe and sell services. A mid sized company looking for IoT hardware or development work does not have the bargaining power to extract customization from Google or Microsoft.

Ideally, what you are looking for is a one-stop shop that can provide a little tweaking, but deliver IoT hardware (and communications stack plus software or apps) in a reasonable timeline to meet your (usually immediate or near term) project goals. Price, scope, and quality are the core. Good communication is the key when you are not completely sure how to get it done, or what constitutes the “definition of done.”

I had a chat with a genuinely impartial friend about this topic. He recommended German engineering, because they “treat hardware like engineering, not marketing.” Germans culturally look at the detail of hardware engineering differently to other European countries, possibly due to “mittlestand” or Germany’s Fraunhofer network. They take an inordinate pride in designing in tactile, functional, effectiveness.

You know that French, Spanish, Italian, English and Nordic engineers can do the job in their local markets and globally. We will get to the French and Spanish, but there seems to be a little bit of segmentation in the UK and the Nordics. Manufacturers specialize in various areas and go deeper, meaning that if your objectives or industry needs are specific, vendors in those locations are able to pass you forward to the right contact.

Eastern Europe has a few powerhouse destinations, combined fast internet infrastructure, outsourcing and strong IT literacy driving a powerful innovation trend. The Polish education system is a hidden force, as is the high potential afforded by it’s close connection to both Ukraine and Germany.

Smaller European countries tend to follow a similar trend. Niche startups get sucked up by bigger players once they hit a certain critical mass and market share. Because the expansion potential within the home market is limited, mergers or buyouts become more practical options.

Telic.de (Germany)
Bressner.de (Germany)
Pepperl-fuchs.com (Germany)
Kontron.com (Germany)
Beijer Electronics (Sweden)
iotron.se (Sweden)
Hms-networks.com (Sweden)
findyiot.com (Bulgaria)
Watteco.com (France)
Actility.com (France)
Lacroix-group.com (France)
Alliot.co.uk (UK)
2j-antennas.com (UK)
Amphenol-sensors.com (UK)
Siretta.com (UK)
Bytesnap.com (UK)
Acalbfi.com (UK)
Wiran.pl (Poland)
Techbase – IIot-Shop (Poland)
Sii.pl (Poland)
iomico.com (Poland)
grinn-global.com (Poland)
Sens.at (Austria)
CellNex.com (Spain)
Nexiona.com (Spain)
Gullivernet.com (Italy)
Eurotech (Italy)
Telit.com (Italy)
Rise (Austria)
Develco (Denmark)
Intspo.no (Norway)
iprotoxi.fi (Finland)
hamsystems.eu (Greece)
Gridnet.gr (Greece)

Two Caveats

For the novice planting a hardware flag in one of the global players: A significant part of our business comes from clients who went first to one of the household brands, eventually getting frustrated with upsell, “pass the parcel” meeting after meeting, and no fix for the “solution” once it was delivered to site. We appreciate that this is not the norm, but it is a common pain point in initial meetings.

Many contracts for IoT come via a conversation between a software house and clients who are not literate in the nuances of real world deployment. Software vendors can live in a delusion bubble that software is the core to IoT. In much the same way that martial artists believed a good “Kiai” and some clean white pyjamas were enough before MMA fixed the frame. Some sell “solutions” which read perfectly on desktop or mobile, but cannot be applied in real world settings.

These practices give IoT development a bad name in industrial settings, where time is real money. Industrial sensors have been in use for over 200 years, at this point. Implementing a secure, robust, solution, from the hardware and software side, is an eminently practical undertaking. But it is a skillset which must include practical thinking, working at heights and depths, electrical knowledge and core radio-telephony skills. Caveat Emptor.