Relayr Eliminates Risk in Industrial IoT Deployments

Several years ago, the executive team at the Berlin‑based IoT firm Relayr, a finalist in the inaugural IoT World Awards, faced a common industry dilemma: How many connected endpoints were enough to prove scale? "We started hyperventilating," recalls co‑founder and chief product officer Jackson Bond. “We thought we needed a massive number of endpoints on our platform to showcase our reach.”

Fast forward to today, and the concern has shifted. In 2018, Munich Re acquired Relayr for $300 million, and the leadership team pivoted from chasing sheer volume to delivering tangible value. "We realized most industrial machines don’t have a huge install base. It’s not about quantity; it’s about the value you create by connecting them," Bond explains.

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While many vendors claim to prioritize business outcomes over technology, Relayr takes it a step further. "If you ask me what’s different about our technology, we’d say probably nothing," Bond says. Yet the company has spent the last six years building an end‑to‑end IIoT platform, robust middleware, and advanced data analytics. The suite includes protocol adapters for legacy systems, predictive edge algorithms, and—most uniquely—guaranteed business outcomes. Thanks to its partnership with an insurance provider, Relayr can offer a risk‑free digital transformation program that comes with outcome warranties.

McKinsey’s 2017 study on “pilot purgatory” found 84% of firms were stuck in pilots lasting over a year, and 28% endured them for more than two years. Bond terms this “productitis.” Observing the industry’s struggle, Relayr shifted its sales focus from IT departments and CTOs to business leaders who measure success in KPIs and profit impact.

In the elevator sector, for instance, Relayr enabled equipment manufacturers and maintenance crews to launch an “elevator‑as‑a‑service” model. Using edge computing to analyze performance, one client added over $600 in new revenue per elevator annually while saving $500 per unit through digital condition monitoring.

Such results resonate with the top decision‑makers. "The CEO needs to understand how technology will benefit the business in the next two to five years," Bond notes. "We don’t project beyond five because technology evolves so rapidly."

Securing upper‑management buy‑in can be swift. "In a single day, you can bring the CFO, CEO, and head of operations together, analyze a simple efficiency lift—say 1–2% per plant—and multiply that across 30 plants, revealing a potential $10 million upside," Bond explains.