Waygum

Waygum, Inc. operated in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) sector, providing a mobile application platform focused on delivering a 'last-mile' mobile layer for industrial systems. The company was founded in March 2013 by Sundar Krish, who also served as its CEO. Krish, an engineering graduate from IIT Madras, drew upon his extensive experience in enterprise software at major Silicon Valley companies, including a role as a distinguished software architect at Cisco. His time at Cisco, particularly working on mobile strategy, revealed a gap in the market for effective enterprise mobile platforms, which inspired him to establish Waygum.

The company's name is derived from the Tamil word for 'speed,' reflecting its mission to accelerate mobile-centric industrial automation. Waygum developed a platform that allowed businesses to build and deploy mobile applications for monitoring and controlling industrial equipment, viewing and analyzing data, and managing inventory directly from smartphones or tablets. This was designed to connect with existing Industrial-Internet platforms such as IOT, M2M, HMI, and SCADA systems. The platform consisted of three main components: a browser-based visual app development tool for non-developers, a Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS), and a mobile-to-machine component for integrating various machines. The primary value proposition was reducing field service costs by enabling quicker problem diagnosis and resolution through remote access and on-site data availability on mobile devices.

Waygum's business model was based on subscriptions to its technology platform. The company targeted industries that could benefit from mobilizing their automation systems, such as manufacturing where technicians needed to interact with large, hard-to-reach machinery. The company successfully raised a total of $1.5 million over four funding rounds, with investors including Cisco Investments, Munich Re, Navitas Capital, and Tyco International Ltd. Waygum also graduated from the Alchemist Accelerator and won second place in Cisco's Internet of Things Innovation Grand Challenge. Public records indicate that Waygum was eventually acquired, and its founder, Sundar Krish, subsequently founded another startup, Sken.ai, which was later acquired by Fortinet.

Keywords: Industrial Internet of Things, IIoT, mobile application platform, M2M, SCADA, HMI, enterprise mobility, industrial automation, mobile backend as a service, MBaaS, asset monitoring, remote equipment control, Sundar Krish, Cisco Investments, Alchemist Accelerator, mobile-to-machine, visual app development, field service optimization, operational technology, mobile-centric automation