Aria believes its billing platform can help service providers and enterprises turn IoT traffic into revenues and a group of investors believe it can too.

February 29, 2016

2 Min Read
Aria Raises $50M, Tunes In to IoT Business Models

Aria Systems has raised an impressive $50 million in a new round of funding from investors confident that the cloud-based billing system specialist has the right approach to helping service providers and enterprise make money from the digital services and IoT markets.

Aria Systems Inc. , which has developed a system designed for repeatable, subscription-based billing, believes its system is well suited to many IoT use cases, which tend to be focused on generating revenues from the data produced by IoT end points and the services built on that data. The vendor believes its cloud-based system, which has an in-built analytics platform that can have its policies and rules easily updated and expanded, is ready to help all types of companies make money from the emerging IoT market.

Clearly, it has persuaded new and existing investors of this opportunity. In the new round of funding, the San Francisco-based company, formed in 2002, added Rembrandt Venture Partners , Madison Bay Capital Partners and Hercules Technology Growth Capital to its list of investors, as well as raising further capital from its existing backers, including Bain Capital and VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW). (See Aria Systems Raises $50M .)

The company has raised $133 million since its inception: its previous round was in November 2013, when it raised $40 million.

Communications service providers are determined to build new business models around the hundreds of millions of devices that will be connected via wireless (including cellular) networks in the coming years. Major operators such as Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) have collectively accelerated the development of the narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) standard and many have invested in alternative IoT technologies in an effort to develop services sooner rather than later.

But they will need advanced analytics and revenue assurance systems to identify the business opportunities and collect money: Aria can be sure it will face fierce competition from the likes of Amdocs, AsiaInfo, CSG, Ericsson, Huawei, NetCracker, Oracle, Redknee, ZTE and others to play the role of smart billing systems supplier to IoT business hopefuls.

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— Ray Le Maistre, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profile, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

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