IOT Group (ASX:IOT) Managing Director & CEO Mark Roper talks about its solutions for connecting a range of devices into technological ecosystems, Blockchain solutions, company strategy and key milestones.

Rachael Jones: Hello I’m Rachael Jones for the Finance News Network. Joining me today from the IOT Group (ASX:IOT) is Executive Director and CEO, Mark Roper. Mark, welcome to FNN.

Mark Roper: Thank you very much.

Rachael Jones: First up Mark, could you start by giving us an introduction to your company?

Mark Roper: In 2016, IOT Group was the first Internet of Things business to be listed on the ASX. This was done with the privilege of having the IOT ticker. We were in the smart IoT device world and a little bit ahead of the curve. So there was a few products out there, but the market was still a little bit infant. Over the last couple of years, this has accelerated a lot and there’s been a huge amount of opportunities that have arisen. And we are now geared correctly to take advantage of them.

Rachael Jones: Thanks Mark. Before we talk about business, can you tell me about the market for connected devices and blockchain solutions?

Mark Roper: The IoT device market is accelerating quite significantly. There’re a lot of forecasts and predictions out there. One IDC report says that this year, the IoT global spend will be reaching $754 billion. And up until 2024, there are other predictions that measure this up to $6.5 trillion. These are just numbers. There are a lot of different measures out there. What really matters is that every single tech giant out there is in the IoT space, in one way or form. And they are all gearing up to take advantage of this market and the growth that’s coming. So this says a lot.

When it comes to blockchain, now we all witnessed what happened in December 2017 with the Bitcoin boom. Everyone went all dizzy going, 'what’s going on here?', 'what’s going on here?'. And what resulted was a realisation that blockchain technology has some real benefit, to evolving our tech systems. And so institutions, companies all around the world, have been working out their kind of angle to how to implement it. So this has been constantly validated by experts around the world. Now what we see as the sweet spot in the future of this market is the combination between IoT, blockchain and artificial intelligence. And that’s where we’re really gearing ourselves to take advantage.

Rachael Jones: Very good. Now to your offerings Mark. Can you tell us more about the IOT devices and smart services, and their blockchain applications?

Mark Roper: Well, as I said, we see the sweet spot with the merger of IoT blockchain and AI. And so we’ve been working with Californian-based netObjex, to develop a suite of products that really fill the gap within certain marketplaces. So we have this great device called Pool Buddy which is wholly owned by IOT Group, which is a smart water chemistry device. This unit sits in your pool. It measures your water quality and it tells you when you need to do something. It tells you if there are dangerous limits or if it’s safe to swim in.

Now what happens is, it will send notifications to our smartphone application and it will tell you what you need to do. And from there you can press a button or the chemicals to rebalance your pool. Or you can hire a service technician or book a service technician straight from the application. So there’s a chemical sales component and we’ll be working with third party retailers to implement this correctly.

Another great example of a product that we will be bringing to market is the cleaning track smart radiation dosimetry device. This is a badge that hospital workers that work around radiation wear, to detect radiation dangers in real time. Currently it takes over a month to get the results back from radiation detection. And this isn’t really acceptable if there is an imminent danger. So this is something that we’re very excited about releasing as it does cater to a real need within the hospital space.

Rachael Jones: Now to the strategy and your financials. Can you tell me the direction the company is going in for 2019 and what are the key milestones?

Mark Roper: Across this year, we’ll be completing our product development with NetObjex. And so we’ll be doing this with industry to make sure that everything is properly aligned with their needs. When it comes to financials, it is a bit premature because we are pre-revenue stage. We are going through a transition and so at the moment everything has just been very much on a development basis and setting up that pipeline in order to capitalise on opportunities that come throughout the year.

Rachael Jones: Thanks Mark and just to the last question now. What can investors look forward to over the next six months and further out?

Mark Roper: IOT Group’s share price is at its lowest which means there’s only one way to go as we start to implement our products. Our products have high margins with huge revenue potential because their market size is actually quite significant. We don’t have competitors in those fields. So the likeliness of being able to penetrate a significant part of the market is quite likely. So my priority is always how to grow our business and always deliver value back to our shareholders.

Rachael Jones: Mark Roper, thanks for the update.

Mark Roper: Thank you very much.