IoT Startup Particle Secures $10.4 Million In Funding, Looks To Expand Channel Program
Internet of Things (IoT) startup Particle has secured $10.4 million in funding, as the company continues help developers rapidly build secure IoT software and manage devices.
CEO Zach Supalla said the latest funding round would help Particle continue to build its main product, Particle Cloud, an enterprise platform that helps companies build and ship IoT products in as little as six months.
"Particle Cloud is the most widely-used IoT platform, with more than 90,000 developers and engineers building new products on our platform," he said. "This funding helps us support those customers who are shipping their devices at scale, in particular, enterprise customers."
Particle Cloud is currently available for free as a prototype and comes in paid tiers as the customer creates products with more than 25 devices.
In addition to platform support, Supalla told CRN that the new funding round would help the San Francisco-based company to grow its channel program "substantially."
"I expect that channel partners will play an extremely important role for us and for IoT in general," he told CRN. "There are a ton of verticals and use cases that require deep expertise, and a ton of customers who need professional services and support to deliver an IoT solution."
Supalla said in the next 18 months he hopes to invest deeper in the company's channel program, which is currently made up of system integrator partners.
Particle claims to be the largest pure-play Internet of Things development platform, and has signed customers such as Keurig and Briggs Healthcare.
Particle said that with its platform, engineers and developers can build their first prototype in an afternoon with a $20 hardware development kit. Typically, building an IoT product takes 18 to 36 months and can cost thousands or millions of dollars, the company said. The model enables product creators and OEMs to iterate quickly and ship a higher-quality product faster.
The company, which began on Kickstarter in 2013, also offers an array of boards and development kits, and hardware solutions like the Asset Tracker hardware kit and Internet Button, which enables users to press a button to trigger something on the internet.
Particle has raised about $14.6 million in funding from its investors – including a previous Series A round of $4.2 million from Lion Wells Capital, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, SOSventures, Collaborative Fund and angel investors.