Form, the hardware startup behind the smart home alarm Point and it’s succesfull kickstarter, has come a long way. They have now announced that they will change the name from Form to Minut, and that they raised a round of funding.
Succesfull kickstarter
Point got a lot of traction with it’s kickstarter campaing. The goal was to raise $ 50 000, but they managed to raise a total of $ 238 000 dollars, with 2 000 backers.
“I’m not sure if we get hold of all the components in time and that we really get time in the factory in China where the units will be manufactured. But we keep the schedule as planned so far.” says CEO Nils Mattisson to 8till5.
Funding to scale
Now the startup announced their first angel investors. Twelve Scandinavian and American business angels, including Don Lindsay, Hampus Jakobsson, Tord Wingren and Anders Frankel, invested € 260 000 ($ 300 000) in the startup.
“The money is one thing, but investors gives us incredible amount of help through their networks.” says Nils Mattisson.
Hardware experience
The team at Minut is experienced in their field – with the founders having a background at tech giants such as Apple and Sony. Focusing on hardware, with the Point device just being the first of potentially many, makes them different to a lot of the other startups in the area.
“There is a view that it is amlmost impossible to do hardware, but actually that is not the case. But the hardware startups that we see today are only the first generation – whereas on the software side there are experienced people who have made one or two exits already and go at it again.” Nils says
In an interview with 8till5 he also points out that hardware has advantages over software:
“There is a greater willingness for consumers to pay for the hardware, it can be a little quicker to get revenue and get income, even if it is a little more difficult to scale up the business.”
Minut’s devices will be manufacuted in Shenzhen, where the team has had a long presence and an office.
“Before we came this far, my view was that you could go to a factory in China and tell them what you wanted and get a price. But you have to pitch the product and sell your idea to the manufacturer, who chooses you and your idea.” says Martin Lööf, co-founder.
Two of the four co-founders are currently in Shenzhen. Although China and Shenzhen give hardware companies great opportunities, the founders have no thoughts of moving the company there permanently.
“The company could be almost anywhere. In some sense we started in China, but it feels as if Malmö is the right place to be. There are very good people here and a very helpful atmosphere. It’s not as pretentious here – it’s okay to be open to fail or make mistakes.” says Nils
You can read even more in a longer interview with the founders at 8till5.
