Spark Labs Raises $4.9M to Help Engineers Make Their Devices Smart

http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/07/08/spark-io-raises-4-9-million-to-help-engineers-make-their-devices-smart/

by jwcooper • 12 years ago

52 31 12 years ago

blogs.wsj.com

100k• 12 years ago

Congrats to the Spark team. Sad to see the Twin Cities lose another IoT startup, but I hope this positions them in the best possible way for success. Welcome to San Francisco!

middleca5• 12 years ago

A lot of us are staying in the Twin Cities, and we're hiring! (https://www.spark.io/jobs), we're looking for great engineers, and we support remote work as well. :)

vicngtor• 12 years ago

Well deserved. Their chip is practically the only chip that works and can be easily integrated into arduino boards.

sputknick• 12 years ago

Can you explain in more detail how well it works with Arduino? Could I take 3 arduino components and 3 spark components and have them integrate to do something useful?

bravo227• 12 years ago

No. The spark dev kit includes an STM32F microcontroller. You can think of this as kinda like your Arduino. You can write programs for it, but you'd have to use their online IDE I think since Arduino native doesn't support STM32F.

It is basically an Arduino dev kit w/ the WiFi module integrated. If you want to use an existing Arduino shield you'd have to buy their Shield Shield which you can plug your spark core into and then plug in the other Arduino shield.

bravo227• 12 years ago

They don't make a chip. They use a CC3000 from TI -- which costs about $10 -- and provide a thing wrapper around TI's own provided driver.

You can take the same CC3000 from TI -- around $11 in low volume -- put it on your board and write your software with their driver.

They basically make a good dev board but for anyone wanting to make anything in a volume beyond 1K they'd use the TI module directly. You don't put a dev board in an end product.

I fail to see how their business is going to scale beyond this.

jenesaisdiq5• 12 years ago

The main product isn't the board -- CC3000+STM32 -- but rather the glorious and inscrutable cloud service that goes with it. The board designs are even being given away for free, it's OSHW.

hashmymustache• 12 years ago

They recognize that it's more for prototyping and wouldn't be used at a production level:

"We use industry-standard components — chosen to be powerful, inexpensive, and widely available — that can be designed directly onto your own circuit board, bringing your Bill of Materials down for volume production."

jenesaisdiq5• 12 years ago

The Spark Core works as a standalone microcontroller (like an Arduino) and a WiFi connection (quite unlike an Arduino).

All you need is Spark.

avidan• 12 years ago

< disclosure, i run the firm that lead this series A >

if you mean integrating into Arduino shields, then YES, absolutely. the beauty of Spark is that it you can program using Wiring (the same language as arduino), so a lot of the example sketchs and libraries are easily transportable.

So basically, if you love an arduino shield, you can prototype using this (http://www.makershed.com/products/shield-shield) then you port the library over to spark's cloud, and you have a wifi enabled Arduino Shield!

once your prototype is where you want it, you can roll-up a version of that shield with the spark components built on the board. because the reference design of the spark core is open, its actually quite easy (assuming your shield's schematic is available).

and when you are ready for production, getting the cc3000 and stm32 is as easy as throwing a rock down the street in shenzen.

i could not be more excited about leading the investment in spark....and building products at home on the platform.

im not just the investor, im also a member.

fiatmoney• 12 years ago

Can we stop naming things Spark already? There are

- these guys

- http://www.sparkjava.com

- http://spark.apache.org

Even worse, they're all high-quality projects. I can process data from my Spark devices on my Spark cluster and serve the results via Spark.

error54• 12 years ago

Don't forget that you can show the data with Sparklines.

zsupalla2• 12 years ago

Don't forget Autodesk's open source 3D printer platform Spark! So you can print the enclosure for your Spark devices with Spark too.

follower• 12 years ago

Even more so in this area with http://SparkFun.com/ who had to deal with issues arising from having a name with "spark" in it: https://www.sparkfun.com/news/300

tricky2• 12 years ago

Do these guys have any patents on their tech?

bravo227• 12 years ago

Their product is open source: board design, firmware, and cloud software. The WiFi module is CC3000 from TI.

tricky2• 12 years ago

my next project is going to be in this area and you seem like a good person to know. get in touch with me if you want. email address in my profile.

lisper• 12 years ago

Sounds a lot like http://electricimp.com

jasonlaramburu• 12 years ago

It's more expensive than imp but has a smoother wifi pairing process.

jenesaisdiq5• 12 years ago

And a lot cheaper than Imp at scale- <$15 per device in hardware at scale.

Spark Labs Raises $4.9M to Help Engineers Make Their Devices Smart

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