SmartThings, a Minneapolis, MN-based developer of apps that allows users to connect the things in their physical world to the Internet, has raised $3m in seed funding.
The round was led by First Round Capital, with participation from SV Angel, Lerer Ventures, CrunchFund, Max Levchin, Yuri Milner‘s Start Fund, David Tisch, A-Grade Investments, Chris Dixon, Vivi Nevo, Alexis Ohanian, Loic Le Meur, Martin Varsavsky, Kal Vepuri, Ryan Sarver, Jared Hecht, Steve Martocci, Emil Michael, Aaron Levie, Zorik Gordon, and Nathan Hanks.
Led by CEO Alex Hawkinson, SmartThings provides a platform that enables developers and makers to build smart and connected devices, an interactive and mobile user experience for consumers to manage and install apps to monitor, control, automate, and have fun with real-world things from anywhere, at home, office, or on the go.
The company, which previously closed a Kickstarter campaign with 5,694 backers pledging a total of $1,209,423 (read here), intends to use the capital to grow directly and to make investments in the ecosystem of developers and makers who will create an array of connected devices, intelligent and learning applications.
To this end, they have launched the first SmartThings Developer and Maker Competition (build.smartthings.com) to choose 5 key themes representing the most exciting areas of innovation on the physical graph (or Open “Internet of Things”). In each theme, they’ll be awarding a winner for the best software developer/SmartApp, and the best hardware/device maker. In April 2013, the overall winner will be announced.
The judging panel includes First Round Capital, SV Angel, Lerer Ventures, Matt Williams, EIR at Andreesen Horowitz, Loic Le Meur, David Tisch, and Alex Hawkinson, CEO of SmartThings.
Winners will receive cash ($100k overall including $25k each for the top app and top new connected Thing), investor exposure, media coverage, manufacturing and design consulting and be featured across the SmartThings customer base and ecosystem.
FinSMEs
12/12/2012