Berlin-based hardware and software startup Senic has announced a 4m USD series seed funding from American and German investors including Birchmere Ventures, Target Partners and Gira, a leading supplier of building control systems.
Senic has raised new funding to further their mission to build beautifully designed smart home systems. Senic is tackling the gap between two massive markets. The first market is over 30 years old – traditional building automation systems, such as Crestron in the USA or KNX in Europe. These systems typically require a professional integrator, as they are more complex to install.
On the other side, there is a more recent development: Less expensive DIY systems marketed to technically savvy consumers. The gap between the traditional automation systems and DIY systems has yet to be bridged – a space Senic will fill with its product portfolio, starting with the Red Dot Award-winning NUIMO smart home controller and the COVI lamp. The vision is to bring a high-quality, deeply integrated smart home solution to residential and office spaces. The fresh capital will be used to expand the product portfolio.
“Current smart home appliances are predominantly built with technical aspects in mind. Senic addresses a large demand for smart home interfaces that focus on interaction design and build quality, effortless user experience, not only the technology, taking the complexity out of the smart home.” Michael Münnix, Partner at Target Partners
“We believe that the way most people interact with technology is broken, we should be demanding better designed interfaces and more seamless interactions. With this new capital, we’re able to expand our team and product line, continuing to deliver our users products that are beautifully crafted and make the smart home more human.” Tobias Eichenwald CEO Senic GmbH
Quick Facts:
Senic’s mission is to combine design and technology to promote seamless interactions and wellbeing in the home. In 2015, Senic launched their first product NUIMO on Kickstarter. NUIMO is a Red Dot and German Design award-winning smart home controller compatible with smart speakers, lights and other smart devices, such as Sonos and Philips Hue. In 2016, Senic sold out of their first 3 batches of NUIMO. In July 2017, Senic launched their second product COVI, an intelligent designer light with built-in speech interface, along with an updated version of NUIMO that ships with a Hub to extend the integrations and compatibility of NUIMO. NUIMO and COVI are both manufactured locally in Germany.
Gira is a leading complete supplier for intelligent system solutions for electronic, networked digital building control systems. Gira products and solutions represent "Made in Germany" quality, which stands for more than 112 years of German engineering experience, perfection in form and function and much more. This is one of the many reasons why you can find switches, communications and security systems from Gira in use today in about 40 different countries. www.gira.com
Since 1996 Birchmere Ventures has partnered with entrepreneurs to help build high-growth technology companies. The firm, with offices in Pittsburgh and San Francisco, has invested in many dozens of seed-stage startups, resulting in numerous IPOs and M&A transactions representing over $14b in value. birchmerevc.com
With €300 million under management, Target Partners is one of the leading early-stage venture capital firms in Germany. Target Partners invests in new startups and early-stage companies and supports them with venture capital during their build-out and expansion phases. With many years of experience as managers, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, the team at Target Partners supports entrepreneurs in developing and marketing products and services, building organizations, raising money and taking companies public in Europe and the United States. www.targetpartners.de
Senic Press Kit | senic.com | gira.com | targetpartners.de | birchmerevc.com