We are witnessing an unprecedented expansion of Internet of Things ( IoT ) market, whose nodes are already outnumbering human population several times. Despite the huge popularity of IoT , its further expansion is slowed down by a lack of viable power supply methods capable to replace wires or batteries. Due to IoT demand for alternative supply, energy harvesting ( EH ) gathers attention from scientific groups all around the world. In particular, thermoelectricity ( TE ) seems to be a natural and intuitive candidate for IoT owing to magnitude and omnipresence of heat losses and amenability to direct, vibrationless, noiseless and reliable conversion. This review provides up-to-date comparison and evaluation of a recent progress in the field of thermoelectricity, resulting primarily from multidisciplinary optimization of materials, topologies and controlling circuitry. The improvement in materials integrates two trends: nanostructural modulation of pre-existing, conventional thermoelectric materials and synthesis of novel ones. Regarding topology, TE responds better and better to miniaturization trend of semiconductor industry, driven by miniaturization trend, by proposing alternatives to conventional π-type topology. And finally, recently developed controlling circuits consume extremely low power while idle, exhibit above-90% efficiency and start-up with ultra-low input voltages. Combined, these improvements position TE closer to marketization than ever before.