Oxit, a local Internet of Things consulting service, has seen explosive growth during the pandemic — quadrupling annual revenue last year and adding about 100 employees since 2020.
Josh Cox, CEO, and Peter O'Connor, vice president of engineering, launched Oxit in 2014. The engineering-service company helps clients use smart devices. It has mainly North American clients, ranging from the utilities industry to hospitality and building management.
"We'd always had a vision of creating our own company, so that's exactly what we did," O'Connor said.
The first big project for Cox and O'Connor was for life-saving devices in Nairobi for the Kenya Red Cross. The team developed a smoke-detector product to install in shantytown homes. Victims of domestic violence would often start fires to distract from the abuse, but those fires would then quickly spread through the whole house and neighborhood, said Ashley Pope, director of operations. The devices were low-cost and required little power, she said.
O'Connor said the success of that project — and the impact it made — gave them the confidence to launch a broader engineering service. Oxit is a bootstrapped venture, he said, with profits invested back into the company and research.
"We were fortunate enough to meet people along the way that believed in us. They saw what we did for that product and that company (in Kenya)," O'Connor said.
About 80% of Oxit's business comes from referrals, Pope said. It has more than 50 active clients with over 1 million connected devices, according to the website. Oxit wants to drive progress and innovation in a fragmented technology industry, she said. The company has been hiring engineers, despite Covid-19 and layoffs plaguing the industry.
Oxit wants to hire more engineers, including those that specialize in hardware and firmware, and more sales and marketing employees.
Later this year, Oxit plans to launch an internal products line under a subsidiary. These products will help solve different aspects of IoT issues with which clients struggle, Pope said.
O'Connor said there is not a lot of competition in Charlotte for what Oxit does, adding there is "unfettered room to grow."
"I think it's a lot about who needs our help," Pope said. "I think, today, we're being pulled more and more into the utility space, and we're being pulled more and more into concepts where we want the technology that we're working on to really have an impact and make a difference."
Oxit is now working on a complete gas-safety system, developing the technology for command and control capabilities, Pope said. It would allow operators to shut the valve and stop gas flow if a leak is detected, reducing the risk of explosion, she said.
Oxit was the 2022 champion in Charlotte's Inno Madness bracket challenge. The competition, which ran in four rounds throughout March, featured 16 technology-enabled companies making a difference in this area. Oxit slipped past ETHIX360, a compliance software company, to secure the victory. Congratulations to Oxit and its employees!
