Founded | September 2011 |
---|---|
Founder | Ayah Bdeir |
Headquarters | New York, New York |
Website | littlebits |
littleBits is a New York City-based startup that makes an open source library of modular electronics (open-source electronics), which snap together with small magnets for prototyping and learning. [1] [2] The company's goal is to democratize hardware the way software and printing have been democratized. [3] The littleBits mission is to "put the power of electronics in the hands of everyone, and to break down complex technologies so that anyone can build, prototype, and invent." [4] littleBits units are available in more than 70 countries and used in more than 2,000 schools. [5] The company was named to CNN's 10 Startups to Watch for 2013. [6]
littleBits began as a small project in 2008 that Ayah Bdeir, the company's founder and CEO, created for a group of New York designers. [7] She launched littleBits in September 2011. [8] In June 2015, littleBits raised $44.2 million in Series B funding led by DFJ Growth. [9] In November 2013, littleBits received $11.1 million in funding led by True Ventures and Foundry Group, with participation from Two Sigma Ventures, Vegas Tech Fund, and Khosla Ventures, among others. [10]
In August 2013, the company released the Base, Premium and Deluxe Kits, the first kits to feature the current bits and modules. The goal is to make getting started with littleBits easier and containing the most important modules than other kits.
In July 2014, littleBits introduced cloudBit, a WiFi-enabled module that lets builders add Internet connectivity to their designs. [11] The goal is to give "the average person an easy and open way to contribute to the Internet of Things" [11] using an open-source platform comparable to Linux or Android [12] to build such things as a remote control for coffee makers, heating/cooling systems, or other appliances. [13] In November 2014, the company released the Smart Home Kit, designed to let builders "hack together versions of familiar smart-home concepts—connected coffee pots and presence-aware lamps—or create solutions of their own devising." [14] Using the modules, builders could test smart home gadgets of their own designs to "feel out this new territory for themselves" instead of "taking some company’s word on what your smart home should be." [14]
LittleBits consists of small circuit boards with specific functions built to snap together with magnets [15] without soldering, wiring, or programming. Each bit has its own specific function, such as light, sound, sensors, or buttons. [2] There are "trillions of billions of combinations" possible in the littleBits open source library. [5] NASA has collaborated with littleBits to design projects for a littleBits ‘Space Kit.’ [16] Projects include building a model Mars rover and the wireless transmission of music to a model of the International Space Station. [16] In October 2014, the Space Kit won a Fast Company "Innovation by Design" award. [17] In 2013, littleBits partnered with the Museum of Modern Art Stores in New York to build two window displays, which included a giant ferris wheel "propelled by a miniature cyclist" and a "mad scientist controlling a nearly life-sized puppet." [18] Also in 2013, littleBits collaborated with KORG to create the Synth Kit, allowing users to build a DIY synthesizer or create musical instruments. [19] In 2018 LittleBits STEAM Student Set was certified by the Education Alliance Finland for pedagogical quality. [20] In 2017, littleBits partnered with Disney to develop the Droid Inventor Kit, codeveloped with the design team at Lucasfilm. [21] The Droid Inventor Kit was named Top Creative Toy of the Year by the Toy Foundation. [22]
In September 2014, littleBits announced bitLab, a marketplace for products built using littleBits kits and modules. [23] The "app store for hardware" is the "first marketplace for user-generated hardware" (according to Bdeir) [24] and has the potential to become "the most extensive platform for hardware creation and innovation available." [25] In July 2015, littlebits opened a retail store in Soho, Manhattan. The store has an innovative retail model that allows users to either use the littlebits product for free in-store ("Inventions to Stay"), or to build something, pay for the components, and take it away ("Inventions to Go"). [26] [27]
The first launch of littleBits was at Makerfaire 2009. littleBits won Editor's Choice awards in 2009 and 2011 from MAKE magazine. [28] The company has organized a series of hackathons and workshops to encourage active participation in science and technology. [5] CEO Bdeir was named to Popular Mechanics’ 25 Makers Who Are Reinventing the American Dream in 2014, [29] Inc.’s 35 Under 35 Coolest Entrepreneurs, [3] and Fast Company's Most Creative People of 2013. [30]
In August 2019, Sphero completed acquisition of LittleBits for an undisclosed sum, giving Sphero a combined portfolio of over 140 patents in robotics, electronics, software, and the internet of things (IoT). [31] Unfortunately since the acquisition, the web links included in all the original products to the original littlebits.cc website information no longer operate. As part of the company transfer, Sphero shut down cloudbit servers and discontinued support for the Littlebits Cloudbit. [32]
Techstars is a pre-seed investor that provides access to capital, mentorship, and other support for early-stage entrepreneurs. It was founded in 2006 in Boulder, Colorado. As of May 2022, the company had accepted over 2,900 companies into its accelerator programs with a combined market capitalization of $71bn USD. Techstars operates accelerator programs in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore is a 32-bit processor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture. It is a multicore processor with out-of-order superscalar pipeline running at up to 2.5 GHz.
Ayah Bdeir is an entrepreneur, inventor, and interactive artist. She is the founder and CEO of littleBits. She is also the co-founder of Daleel Thawra, a directory of protests, initiatives, donations in Lebanon.
Limor Fried is an American electrical engineer and owner of the electronics hobbyist company Adafruit Industries. She is influential in the open-source hardware community, having participated in the first Open Source Hardware Summit and the drafting of the Open Source Hardware definition, and is known by her moniker ladyada, an homage to Lady Ada Lovelace.
Google Nest is a line of smart home products including smart speakers, smart displays, streaming devices, thermostats, smoke detectors, routers and security systems including smart doorbells, cameras and smart locks.
Leap Motion, Inc. was an American company that manufactured and marketed a computer hardware sensor device that supports hand and finger motions as input, analogous to a mouse, but requires no hand contact or touching. In 2016, the company released new software designed for hand tracking in virtual reality. The company was sold to the British company Ultrahaptics in 2019, which rebranded the two companies under the new name Ultraleap.
Scanadu was a Silicon Valley-based company that developed new medical devices from 2011 to 2016. In June 2020, after relaunching under the name inui Health, it was acquired by the Israeli healthcare startup Healthy.io.
Lockitron is a device which can lock and unlock doors via remote control, typically via a smartphone. Starting with installations in 2010, it is one of the earliest examples of a Smart lock. Lockitron was made by Apigy Inc., a start-up based in Mountain View, California. Apigy was a graduate of the Y Combinator start-up accelerator.
Nexus 5 is an Android smartphone sold by Google and manufactured by LG Electronics. It is the fifth generation of the Nexus series, succeeding the Nexus 4. It was unveiled on October 31, 2013 and served as the launch device for Android 4.4 "KitKat", which introduced a refreshed interface, performance improvements, greater Google Now integration, and other changes. Much of the hardware is similar to the LG G2 which was also made by LG and released earlier that year.
Sphero, Inc. is an American consumer robotics and toy company based in Boulder, Colorado.
SmartThings Inc. is an American home automation company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Since August 2014 it is a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics.
Space Monkey is a cloud storage company founded by Clint Gordon-Carroll and Alen Peacock in 2011. Space Monkey created a cloud storage service that puts consumer data both on a hard drive located in the home and backed up on other devices. The company's user network is distributed through the cloud. The service prevents data loss due to failing hardware while allowing consumers to access their files anywhere in the world via the cloud.
Carbon is a digital manufacturing company founded in 2013 by Joseph and Philip DeSimone, Alex and Nikita Ermoshkin, Edward Samulski, and Steve Nelson. Carbon is based in Redwood City, California. The company manufactures and develops 3D printers utilizing the Continuous Liquid Interface Production process, with its first commercial product being the Carbon M1 printer. The company introduced its proprietary CLIP process on the TED stage in 2015. The Carbon Platform combines software, hardware, and molecular science in its manufacturing process to allow customers to build differentiated products efficiently. In April 2017, Adidas announced the first 3D printed midsole developed using Carbon technology.
Google's Advanced Technology and Projects group (ATAP) is a skunkworks team and in-house technology incubator, created by former DARPA director Regina Dugan. ATAP is similar to X, but works on projects, granting project leaders time—previously only two years—in which to move a project from concept to proven product. According to Dugan, the ideal ATAP project combines technology and science, requires a certain amount of novel research, and creates a marketable product. Historically, the ATAP team was born at Motorola Mobility and kept when Google sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo in 2014; for this reason, ATAP ideas have tended to involve mobile hardware technology.
Gestigon is a software development company founded in September 2011, by Sascha Klement, Erhardt Barth, and Thomas Martinetz. The company develops software for gesture control and body tracking based on 3D depth data.
SAM Labs is a startup that makes app-enabled construction kits, designed for people of all ages to learn STEM, play, and create with technology and the Internet of Things. The company has been featured in WIRED and The Telegraph. Founded by Belgian born CEO Joachim Horn, the company works out of their headquarters in East London.
Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center (SSIC) is a division of Samsung Electronics. It works with entrepreneurs and corporate partners to invest in disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence, digital health, mobility, Internet of Things and other consumer-facing applications of data-driven technology.
The littleBits Synth Kit is an analogue modular synthesiser developed by the American electronics startup littleBits in collaboration with the Japanese music technology company Korg. Released in late 2013 after a design process of around nine months, the kit features 12 small modules that can be connected to form larger circuits. Several of these bits are adapted from circuits used in Korg's Monotron synthesisers. A booklet detailing over 10 example projects to follow is sold with the kit. A later version of the Synth Kit, the Synth Pro Kit, was released in June 2015 and added three new bits that provide external connectivity for the kit.