(NOTE: This story was originally posted to CRN.com Dec. 20.)

Grabbing A Piece Of A Growing Market

The Internet of Things is steadily on track to becoming a lucrative market for solution providers. That's part of the reason that startups want to tap into IoT use cases like application development, home automation, and connected factories.

Investors like Cisco Systems, Intel Capital and Qualcomm Ventures also realize the potential of IoT. Funding for IoT startups is at an all-time high, reaching $846 million in financing in the first quarter of 2016, up from $680 million in the year-ago quarter, according to a report by market research firm CB Insights.

From Afero to Foghorn Systems, here are some of the coolest Internet of Things startups from 2016 to monitor.