Pebble funds product launches through Kickstarter and other crowdfunding, repeatedly drawing large backer pools for its hardware products. Its latest campaign closed with $12.8 million raised from almost 67,000 backers. That result placed the campaign among Kickstarter's top-funded efforts, sitting behind Pebble Time and the Coolest Cooler on the platform's leaderboard. Pebble previously raised $10.3 million in its original campaign and $20.3 million for Pebble Time. CEO Eric Migicovsky said the company is proud to demonstrate that the crowdfunding model works. The article notes strong audience enthusiasm at launch, and Pebble continues to accept pre-orders on Pebble.com. Pebble makes consumer smartwatches sold at the lower end of the market, with products priced roughly $50 to $299. The company burst onto the scene via a then‑record $10M Kickstarter in 2012 and later ran a second $20M Kickstarter campaign. CEO Eric Migicovsky said the firm has been cautious while planning products this year. Financial strain has mounted: Pebble raised $28M in debt and venture financing over the past eight months but says money remains tight. The company laid off 25% of its staff—40 employees—as it faces fierce competition from Apple, Samsung, Motorola, LG and others. Market demand for smartwatches has been muted, making mainstream sales challenging and complicating Pebble’s path forward. Pebble makes consumer smartwatches, originally known for a $99 black-and-white e-paper watch. It recently launched the Pebble Time, a follow-up with a color e-paper screen and a built-in microphone. The company raised $20 million on Kickstarter (about $18 million after fees) but is reportedly struggling to maintain growth. To bridge cash needs it sought a $5 million loan and a $5 million line of credit from Silicon Valley Bank while venture capitalists have been turning down requests for new capital. Employees are described as cautiously optimistic by some but there are reports of dissatisfaction with company direction and the hiring process, including a critical Glassdoor post. Pebble currently has about 150 employees and is still hiring as it faces competition from Apple, Android platforms and new entrants such as the Olio watch. Pebble launched its second major hardware iteration, the Pebble Time, a smartwatch line that includes Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel. The company funded the launch via a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign that raised $20,338,986 from 78,741 backers. The campaign resulted in 95,906 devices ordered in total—58,966 Pebble Time and 36,940 Pebble Time Steel—driving a higher average selling price thanks to the Steel option. Pebble must deliver 48,690 Pebble Time watches by May and 29,997 Pebble Time Steel devices in the initial July shipment group to meet stated backer rewards. Compared with its original Pebble campaign, which resulted in 85,419 pre-orders, Pebble Time sold a similar number of devices but raised substantially more money (the original campaign earned 65.8% less). The article notes the Apple Watch event during the campaign boosted pledge volume, but it is unclear how that will translate into post-campaign retail sales. Pebble builds a developer-focused smartwatch and platform, shipping hardware to early backers while enabling third-party apps and watchfaces. The company released its first SDK and followed with PebbleKit and a Pebble Sports API to enable two-way communication and GPS-enabled apps. Pebble reported over 8,000 SDK downloads, more than 5,000 unique watchapps, and roughly 300,000 installs in the last month. It is still fulfilling Kickstarter demand — 85,000 orders were placed and about 70,000 units have shipped, with “tens of thousands” of additional orders reported. The company plans to use the new funding to grow its software engineering team and scale operations to meet customer demand. Pebble aims for retail availability in four to six months.

Total raised

$88M

Funding rounds

8

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Jun 2016