It’s been a dozen years since the original Roomba hit the market, and the floor-hugging autonomous vacuum is still the biggest-selling product for its manufacturer, iRobot.
That hasn’t come without some trying. Ever heard of the Scooba? How about the Looj? The Mirra? Those are all iRobot products that followed the Roomba, aimed respectively at cleaning floors, gutters, and pools.
None of them has taken off like the oversized hockey puck that started it all. As CEO Colin Angle told analysts on a recent conference call, “our biggest challenge for continued strong growth is overcoming skepticism.”
“We’re not doing rocket science. We’re just trying to get people to go camping.”
So says Ravi Parikh, co-founder and CEO of Austin, TX-based startup RoverPass. While his comment is a little self-deprecating, it certainly explains his company well. RoverPass helps campers and RV owners find and book places in campgrounds and RV parks while helping campground and RV park owners—the startup’s customers—find new revenue and manage online bookings and advertising in a simple way.
DB Networks, a Carlsbad, CA-based company developing database security technology, says today it has raised $17 million in a new financing round led by Grotech Ventures. The additional cash will be used to advance its network technology and expand its business, according to a statement.
Its market sector has a lot to do with that. Nashua, NH-based enterprise IT startup DataGravity has raised a $50 million C round, led by new investor Accel Partners. Previous investors including Andreessen Horowitz, CRV, and General Catalyst also participated in the round. The company has now raised $92 million to date.
Instacart, the home grocery delivery service that launched back in 2012, is close to raising a massive Series C round of funding north of $100 million, according to sources. The raise will value the startup at $2 billion, or more than quadruple the $400 million valuation of its Series B financing from June.
Including this round, Instacart has raised a total of $154.8 million with other investors that include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Khosla Ventures, Canaan Partners, Y Combinator boss Sam Altman and Box founder Aaron Levie.
La empresa donostiarra, especializada en soluciones de domótica basadas en tecnologías inteligentes, ha recibido una nueva ronda de inversión de 1,25 millones de euros. La compañía tiene previsto lanzar un nuevo kit de seguridad para el hogar en 2015 y abrirse al mercado alemán.
The founders of Flipkart, one of India’s biggest e-commerce companies, have led an investment of $1 million in Ather, a Chennai-based startup that makes electric scooters. In addition to Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, who launched Flipkart in 2007 (and are unrelated, despite their identical last names), Ather’s seed round also included participation from Raju Venkatraman, the CEO of healthcare company Medall.
If Will.i.am can have a futuristic, high-tech backpack that charges his devices and amplifies music, there’s no reason why the average person can’t have high-tech luggage that’s a bit better adjusted to everyday life.
Enter Bluesmart, a self-weighting, auto-locking, device-charging suitcase that’s raised almost $1.4 million in funding through its Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.
Como cada inicio de mes, repasamos las inversiones más importantes que se han cerrado en el sector de las startups tecnológicas en España durante el mes anterior, en este caso el de noviembre.
