Roost provides a home telematics platform and consumer devices including the Roost Smart Battery and the Roost Smart Water Leak and Freeze Detector. The company sells primarily through insurance carriers that deploy devices directly to policyholders, pairing hardware with a digital mobile app to drive engagement, retention and acquisition. Roost targets reduction of claim costs from fire and water perils, a market the article cites as costing $20B per year in the US. Led by co-founder and CEO Roel Peeters, the company intends to use new capital to continue product development and to expand new product services for insurance partners. The business is based in Sunnyvale, California. The article reports Roost has raised $17M in total funding to date. Roost’s core product is a $35 smart battery that fits in most smoke detectors and adds smartphone notifications, low-battery alerts, alarm notifications, and the ability to silence alarms. The company takes a retrofit approach to bring smart-home functionality to existing devices rather than requiring consumers to buy new hardware. Roel Peeters is CEO and the company is positioning the product for broad consumer adoption by leveraging familiar installation patterns. Roost previously accumulated nearly $100,000 in Kickstarter pledges in 2014. Today the company is expanding operations and gearing up for a commercial launch supported by new institutional funding. The product and go-to-market focus aim to lower barriers to entry for smart-home adoption. Roost is a Sunnyvale, CA-based developer of smart home technology. The company has developed a patent-pending connected platform intended to allow mainstream consumers to enter the smart home space. Its initial hardware solution, which uses an innovative retrofit approach to the connected home, is planned to be announced this fall. The product will be sold at a retail price below $50 and will be coupled with a mobile app that manages home data. Roel Peeters serves as CEO, James Blackwell as CTO, and David Henry as CMO. Financially, Roost has raised $975K in seed funding from investors including DCM Ventures, Jason Krikorian, Legend Star and angel investors.

Total raised

$17M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Aug 2017