Roost, Inc. unveiled itself and announced a strategic seed investment round of $975,000. Unlike the wide array of existing smart home electronics providers, Roost economically brings smart home functionality to consumers through one-step retrofitting of existing household products. The company also announced its new flagship product, the Roost Smart Battery. With this news, Roost claims the easiest and most cost effective path to a smarter home, beginning with the simple retrofit of every home’s critical safety device, the smoke alarm.
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The patent-pending Roost Smart Battery uniquely combines a lithium battery and advanced Wi-Fi in a familiar 9V package. Coupled with an intuitive smartphone app, the Roost Smart Battery solution delivers notifications to your smartphone when your smoke alarm activates, even if you are not at home. It also eliminates the annoying 3:00am chirping from your smoke alarms when the old battery is dying. With Roost, the battery lasts more than 5 years, and even then you’ll receive a notification “before” the chirping begins.
“Simply download our Roost app, connect to your home WiFi, and then insert the Roost Smart Battery in an existing smoke alarm to appreciate how simple and intuitive it is to install and use”, said Roel Peeters, Roost CEO and co-founder. “No hubs, no wires, and no pricey new devices. Our retrofit approach to the smart home shows that peace of mind doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. We’ve chosen to apply the Roost Smart Battery to smoke alarms first because quite simply they are the most important devices to ensure the safety of your home and loved ones.”
Availability and pricing: The Roost Smart Battery will begin shipping in Q2 of 2015. The Roost Smart Battery will be available online and at retail for $25-35 depending on bundled pack size. Roost plans to offer pre-orders through a Kickstarter campaign in the next few weeks.
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Founded by trailblazers of the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi industry, Roost has developed a unique, patent-pending connected platform that delivers the ultimate in installation simplicity and the most affordable way for consumers to enter the smart home space.
“The fast growing smart home industry is currently focused on selling ‘shiny,’ often costly and complicated new hardware,” said Peeters.
Leading its over-subscribed seed funding are DCM Ventures and General Partner, Jason Krikorian, founder of Sling Media, as well as Legend Star, an investment division of Legend Holdings, the largest private corporation in China and owner of Lenovo. These powerhouse leaders in smart hardware, wireless and the connected home were joined by a unique group of angel investors consisting of serial entrepreneurs, seasoned executives and professional investors.
Roost’s innovation leadership begins with its founders: CEO, Roel Peeters is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of startup experience ranging from enterprise software to consumer electronics and semiconductors. Most recently, he was the co-founder of Ozmo Devices, a pioneer in low-power Wi-Fi. Prior to Ozmo’s acquisition by Atmel in 2012, Peeters successfully raised angel and venture funding rounds for the company. He also developed and executed Ozmo’s go-to-market plan with strategic partners including Intel and Microsoft. Furthermore, Peeters secured a key role for Ozmo in the standardization activities of Wi-Fi Direct technology.
CTO, James Blackwell is a wireless industry veteran with over 20 years of leadership experience in the design and manufacturing of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi systems. After spending over a decade at Bluetooth pioneer CSR, Blackwell joined Ozmo Devices as the head of Ozmo’s Application Engineering and Integration group. One of the world’s foremost experts on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, Blackwell has spent a notable career building the backbone of today’s wireless consumer technologies.
CMO, David Henry has more than 30 years of marketing experience, general management and product line leadership in the consumer electronics and B2C markets, including General Electric and Iomega. Most recently, Henry was CMO for SunPower, where he drove global brand and marketing strategies. Prior, Henry was a member of Logitech’s executive team as CMO and GM of the Mice, Keyboard and Harmony remotes $1.2B global business.
“Roel and his team have more combined experience, expertise and vision in the development of low-power Wi-Fi and Bluetooth consumer products than anyone else in this segment,” said Jason Krikorian, DCM Ventures General Partner. “What makes Roost so unique from other entrants in the smart-home space, is an ingenious take on technology offerings that work with the products consumers already have — resulting in the delivery of smart functionality at a very affordable price point.”
source: http://www.powerpulse.net/story.php?storyID=30980
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