Bulgarian IoT products maker Shelly Group has struck a deal with Vodafone to supply smart devices to the British telecommunications group’s subsidiary Vodacom, with an initial focus on all its sites in 20 African countries and access to 40 partner networks.
The partnership will allow Vodacom to use Shelly Pro 3EM devices to measure and monitor energy consumption at its sites by collecting real-time data on a centralised platform for further processing and analysis, Shelly said in a press release on Monday.
The agreement with Vodafone is seen as the first step in a potential global roll-out of Shelly devices to Vodafone, made possible by their availability on the internal channels of the Vodafone Procurement Company (VPC), which oversees the sourcing and acquisition of products and services for the entire Vodafone Group.
“The business relationship with Vodafone in Africa is a significant step in the implementation of our strategy in the professional market segment. Our efforts to further develop our product portfolio for professional customers are paying off,” Wolfgang Kirsch, co-CEO of Shelly Group, said.
The Pro 3EM device is a cloud-compatible three-phase energy meter, which reports accumulated energy data and can also store it for retrieval over a period of up to 60 days.
Shelly Group aims to gain more traction with professional users, expanding in the B2B market where the company perceives larger opportunities than in the do-it-yourself smart home segment.
Based and listed in South Africa, Vodacom is majority-owned by Vodafone and operates in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Mozambique, Lesotho, Kenya and Ethiopia, with mobile networks covering a population of over 500 million people. The company also offers managed services to enterprises in 47 countries.
Shelly Group, formerly known as Allterco, distributes IoT products to over 100 markets, with offices in Bulgaria, China, USA, Slovenia and Germany. The company recently struck a partnership with US-based enegytech start-up Zendure, to help provide smart home energy management services for retail consumers.