Minut is headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, with 15 people in the team. The company is headed by Nils Mattisson (ex-Apple) and is composed of engineers and builders from Google, TAT, Axis and more.

Point is the first home alarm in a single device that doesn’t rely on intrusive cameras. Rather than cameras and complex alarm systems with several different components, Point applies artificial intelligence to environmental sensors to understand what’s going on in the home, try the new DSLR cameras for beginners if you want to start with a good camera.
Intrusions, fire, and windows breaking are some of the things Point can detect. If an important event happens, Point alerts you and your community of family, friends or neighbors instantly, so that you can help each other when looking out for your home.

“Point is the first home alarm that respects your privacy while giving you comfort knowing everything is fine at home”, says Nils Mattisson, CEO of Minut, in a press release.

Point is trained to detect specific events and no sensitive, personal data, ever leaves the device. People should not have to choose between privacy and safety.

“The market as it looks today is crowded by security cameras. But there are a lot of reasons people don’t want or can have, a security camera in their living room. With Point, we offer an alternative”, says Nils Mattisson.

The first version of Point launched in 2014 and is now available in over 60 countries. It is sold directly to consumers and through partnerships with insurance companies and telcos. The new generation is expected to reach the first customers in May 2018.

Check out Point at Kickstarter.

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Minut has been invited to join the EDF Pulse awards in France for innovative tech projects together with over 250 other companies in Europe. As the first stages of EDF Pusle are now done, Minut is one of of the two finalists left in the smart home category.

”We are of course very happy so far and hope to be able to remain in the lead. The final winner is decided by a public vote that is active until 10th of May. We hope that our customers, friends and Kickstarter backers like what we have achieved so far and will vote for us” says Nils Mattisson, Founder of Minut.

If you want to help them and vote for the team at Minut, you can do it here.

The EDF Pulse Awards provide the winners with tangible and operational support: a €100,000 grant as well as EDF’s assistance and a mass media campaign. All of this support will stimulate the development of the projects and spark the interest of investors, customers and partners. If Minut wins, there is already a plan for how the money will be used:

”We’ve grown from 4 to 9 employees in a short period of time, but we still have a lot to achieve – bringing in additional team members who would help us accelerate the development of Point and future products would be absolutely great!” Says Nils

You can read about the EDF Pulse awards and other nominations here.

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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.

The post Form raises € 260 000 and changes name to Minut appeared first on Øresund Startups.

The concept had been tweaked for the second event – there were fewer startups pitching, and more focus on 1 on 1 session afterwards between startups and investors. Overall both good improvements, and it turned into a short, good and impactfull event for everyone attending.

Early stage startups

The level of the startups was solid, and covered both early startups looking for € 50 000 or less, up to some asking for for € 1 million. The event was small, but impact-full – the audience was 15 business angels and early stage VCs, including names such as Thorvald Stigsen, Anders Frankel, Rasmus Bjerngaard and Nikolaj Nyholm. With 13 startups present and the different levels, it was also good spread for the different investors.
The startups present where:

• Petreas – connecting service providers with customers.
• Startuptravels – an airbnb for entrepreneurs.
• Sharingear – renting out music equipment to bands and concerts.
• DrinksOnUs – digitalising bar services.
• Forecast.it – a project and portofolio management service
• Sensor Six – a solid team that aims to make enterprise IT better
• Kiggit – a new and more up-to-date way of making betting
• Erghis – touch less technology
• Renouve – a new take on the cosmetics market
• Form – the smart home sensor.
• Rokoko – making motion capture cheap and affordable, especially interesting with the huge interest in virtual reality such as oculus rift.
• Donkey Republic – providing bike rentals in cities that are convenient and digital connected.
• Sponsta – making content marketing and branding on Instagram easier.

After the 4 minuts pitches by each startup, the event was changed into a 1 on 1 session with investors and startups having time for deeper questions and answers. This was highly appreciated and gave the startups feedback and insights, while letting the investors get to know the startups better.

Drawing on the regions strength

Just as last time the event included startup and angels from the entire region, both Copenhagen and the Swedish side, Skåne. Overall this was an event that was short, effective and brought lots of value. Another really good example of community efforts from #malmostartups and #cphftw, and how they do a great job of moving the startup scene forwards.

The event was held in the brand new event space at Rainmaking Loft. Great atmosphere and good for the presentation, but became a little noisy during the 1 on 1s. But this will probably improve for future events.

Stay tuned to cphftw and malmostartups for info about when and where the next AngelNext will be held. And are you interested in pitching your early stage startup, or a business angel who wants get to know good startups, get in touch with Jasenko or Joel.

The post AngelNext – connecting promising startups with good business angels appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Deep insights with 4 cases

If you ever have thought about raising money then this event sounds like a must. With four very different startups having promised to tell every detail of how they raised money, as well as Hampus Jakobsson talking about his view on investments as a business angel. We have been told the event will really dig into the subject in a very meaningfull and transparent way.

“Creating a company has many challenges that you can’t study to learn but usually need to figure out the hard way. Things like how to raise money, find co-founders, come up with a good idea for your startup… Some of these are irreversible and might lead you down a path of doom. Building Blocks is a series that give overview of a topic and then companies telling their honest and transparent stories.” says Joel Larsson, one of the organisers.

The event will have four speakers telling about funding from angels, VCs and crowdfunding. The cases will be Userbin, Mapillary, Everplaces, and Form (the guys behind the recent Point Kickstarter).

The speakers talk about:
• What was required for each funding (metrics, passion, fit…) sharing feedback, slides, metrics, etc when possible
• Share their opinions on dilution, equity to employees, good and bad money, any other common questions and pitfalls
• General tips, tricks, and recommendations for someone raising money

When: 1 dec, 13:00 – 16:00
Where: Media Evolution City
Registration: At eventbrite (the event is free)

Image credits: Bidgee

The post Startup Building Blocks: How to fund your startup appeared first on Øresund Startups.

It’s an impressive product, that really fits in the changing use of homes – not just acting as a fire alarm, but also a way to keep track of what happens at home when you are not there. Like when you have rented it out on AirBnB. But in an un-intrusive way.

Also very interesting is that the device will work with IFTTT as well as Lockitron – enabling control of things in very interesting ways!

Check out the video, or read what some of the many articles say about it. The team behind it is a collection of experienced people from the region, who have a past at Apple, Ericsson and Axis. Will be very interesting to see the project unfold, and we look forward to welcome the team back when they are done in Shenzhen.

The post Point – the smart home sensor – gets great traction appeared first on Øresund Startups.