An Interview with Loic Bonvarlet, Kigen's SVP, Solutions Marketing

Loic Bonvarlet oversees eSIM and iSIM Solutions Marketing for Kigen, helping to facilitate adoption and scalability of a secure, integrated and cost effective cellular IoT. He drives the entire Kigen portfolio from embedded solutions to services. He has more than 20 years of experience in Telecoms, wireless, security and IoT in development, support, technical sales and product marketing.

Prior to Kigen, Loic Bonvarlet worked at Arm (2018-2020) as Product Marketing Director, Secure Identity notably to develop and promote Kigen Portfolio and first iSIM projects.

In his previous Gemalto role, Loic Bonvarlet was leading IoT Services Product Marketing including the Gemalto IoT platform and Security Solutions (Trusted Key Manager and Secure Element). As North America Application Engineering Director, he helped key cellular module customers to successfully go to market.

Loic holds a Master of Engineering in Telecoms and networks from Grenoble Institute of Technology.

Carl Ford: Congratulations on the fundraising and the addition of SBI to your funders ARM and Softbank. If I read the press release and blogs correctly, the money is being used to expand your reach into industrial markets, particularly in Southeast Asia. Do I understand this correctly?

Loic Bonvarlet: With the newly raised capital, Kigen plans to accelerate its global expansion, particularly in the industrial IoT sector. On a global scale, there are strong prospects across manufacturing. In energy, there is greater IoT investment by enterprises in supply chain, For example, IDC estimates that industrial IoT in Asia Pacific is expected to reach $355 billion by 2029 with a CAGR of 12.6% in the next four years. The strategic alignment in our and SBI’s vision, hence, will help expand presence in the Asian market, including Japan. Kigen’s vision empowers OEMs and ODMs by helping them to implement their eSIM transition and optimized manufacturing, so this new investment will certainly provide a boost to our success.

CF: Speaking of Industrial, Kigen has put a great deal of emphasis on module integration. In the past, what have been the major incompatibility problems SIM manufacturers have faced and how does eSIM impact those issues?

LB: The complexity of using eSIMs in the IoT context is massively reduced, as eSIM technology now is evolving from older M2M eSIM models to a more accessible IoT eSIM model. There is no longer the need for complex SMDP to SMSR integration. However, an integrator or OEM needs to test all the elements end-to-end, from eSIM to IoT Profile Assistant in the eSIM or device, and middleware to selected SMDP+ and eIM. Kigen facilitates that journey by pretesting its eSIM with IPAe, C middleware for IPAd or IFPP, SMDP+ and eIM to simplify the required steps for the integrator.

CF: I know Nordic Semiconductor has announced its integration with you; how will you announce the other module companies participating in your integration testing?

LB: We have the “Secure with Kigen” program, which now has enrolled all the top IoT module makers partners. Nordic, being a trusted name for so many embedded and cellular designs, is one of our inaugural partners in this ecosystem and is bringing this to developers through it’s nRF9150-60 series, and with an experience that delivers the speed of development we hoped for in its Thingy:91X platform. Details are available here. We have also have the full selection of available modules that fulfill the Secure with Kigen interoperability testing.

CF: Let’s talk about your integration with Simetric and the strengths you both bring to the table. Kigen is a leader in remote SIM provisioning, while Simetric is a new breed of CMP. Together, I understand you are looking to address the needs of the enterprise market. What industry segments are you targeting?

LB: We are notably targeting the OEMs and enterprises with large fleets of SIMs coming from various connectivity providers and transitioning to an eSIM single-SKU approach. With our integration of platforms, customers can manage, from a single pane of glass, the entire eSIM journey, from profile download and installation (the RSP world), to data plan selection and connectivity activation and billing (the CMP world). Simetric has integrated Kigen Pulse API for complete access to eSIM IoT Remote Manager features, such as profile state operations and full connectivity management that support scaled fleet operations.

CF: Looking at the Simetric solution, it feels like we should expect enterprises to change their interconnection with CMPs, which traditionally have been a product managed by MNOs/MVNOs and the enterprise used APIs to go into their IT systems. Now it feels like Simetric will be in the enterprise and manage the carriers APIs themselves.

LB: It is one option, notably for enterprises that have already managed the complexity of logging into multiple MNO platforms to control their CMP flows, and cannot easily do API integration, as each platform exposes services differently. Now an enterprise served by an all in one MVNO and happy with its service could still stay on this approach. It is a make or buy decision when multiple connectivity suppliers are in play.

CF: If I have it right, the question is how Kigen interconnects to Simetric, how does it establish an advantage in convenience for the enterprise, and how often do you expect the eSIM to be changed from one MNO/MVNO to another?

LB: Our expectation is still that the eSIM profile changes are here as an insurance policy, notably to address contract negotiation, quality of service, and changes of technology. Having the ability to do so presents a strong advantage to the OEM or enterprise, even if we don’t expect a high number of profile swaps in their IoT fleets. Connectivity providers delivering a good API experience and service within market price can keep their customers for very long time. Our eIM and eSIM management solutions are built to maximize interoperability across the protocols that are prevalent across the connected IoT landscape and to enable enterprises to overcome the fragmentation that has hindered scale in the past. Kigen’s approach is to anticipate the right profile in the right device, ideally at manufacturing time.  

CF: Do you have any pilot or trial customers that have adopted the solution, and have they abandoned their traditional IT-managed APIs in favor of your single pane of glass view?

LB: We have multiple customers in trials of our joint solution, and will happily update you as they become public. Simetric has mentioned that all of the prospects on its platforms want to learn more about eSIM transition and unified workflows across RSP and CMPs. We also have integrations with multiple vendors, which increases the strategic advantage of having Kigen eSIM in the mix.

CF: One of the points of discussion you emphasize is the improved security and the implied concern that legacy systems are not prepared for AI. Is that based on an expectation that spoofing may be a possible weakness? Can you elaborate?

LB: Currently AI is heavily server-centric and very much focused towards end users’ LLM usage. In IoT and fleets, we believe AI will be extended to the edge. We will see more and more intelligence to analyze sensor data in-device with more processing power, rather than carrying useless data back, especially with much of IoT being on compact, efficient and sometimes even single-charged battery devices. Such models require strong security at the edge and you can leverage eSIM technology to protect and sign data at rest and in motion, so that B2B business-critical functions can rely upon AI inputs and outputs that can be trusted.

CF: You also point to some amazing figures, particularly that 81% of enterprises are looking to adopt eSIM because they see it as essential. How does that favorable perspective impact your go-to-market strategy?

LB: eSIM technology and services are already the biggest growth element for Kigen. eSIM is finally taking off in the consumer space, notably thanks to travel eSIMS, and all big, established OEMs and enterprises are looking at ways to optimize their connectivity TCO. By making the right choices during the device design phases, they can keep strong flexibility on downstream connectivity choices.

CF: Many module makers are going to be enabling AIoT. Where will AI impact Kigens solutions now and in the future?

LB: Kigen believes in the opportunity to leverage eSIM and secure technology to protect AI workflows in the IoT world. Similar to an EV capturing huge amounts of video data and processing it in-car or sending it over cellular networks – the most important clip to train autonomous vehicle models – we believe that more and more verticals will see new opportunities leveraging the physical world for better outcomes for users. 


Edited by Erik Linask