Qualcomm Ventures and M Ventures , the corporate venture capital arm of Merck KGaA , have invested in Wiliot . The semiconductor company, founded in early 2017, is developing in Israel a wireless technology that is independent of batteries or a cable-connected power supply and can be integrated into almost everything as a sensor/radio/processor combination. In the first ten months since its founding, Wiliot has collected roughly 19 million US dollars in total.

The Wiliot technology is intended for use in walls and furniture so that these objects can become “smart” and are then able to interact with other Bluetooth devices, including smartphones. This chip and technology design offers a wide range of possibilities, which also include interconnected passive devices with indefinite useful lives, such as packaging and products. The ultimate goal is to fit practically all objects with sensors, to interlink them with each other, and to connect them to the Internet of things.

Over the past few years the semiconductor industry has experienced revolutionary changes and the rapid development of new technologies: A growing smartphone market, the strong development on the sensor market, and a high level of acceptance of the IoT and automation all call for passive devices that are small, fast and can be efficiently integrated. The global market for integrated passive devices (IPD) is forecast to reach 2.64 billion US dollars by 2025.