A yeti has been spotted… but with a tech twist. Fear not! Yeti SmartHome from Netbeast is set to take control of your home, if you let it. By connecting the devices in users’ homes through wireless technologies, Yeti allows users to control all the devices in their homes — regardless of their types or brands — and automate their operation.
The startup has partnered with Crowdcube Spain to raise 190.000€ for 11.88% equity; Netbeast has more than surpassed the halfway point toward its goal, securing over 120,740€ from 21 investors. The lead investor is Wayra, which has provided the bulk of the funding, 100,000€.
Crowdfunds will be used to expand support of up to 20 brands in order expand its market coverage, aiming to grow up to 17,000 active users per month (35%); extend its network of Smart home business partners (30%); and launch and begin monetizing the PPP’s premium features (35%). Personal (50%), online marketing (35%) and business development (15%) account for the main expenses of the company.
Last year Netbeast was selected by shuttle, a leading Spanish startup accelerator to participate in its 4th edition of acceleration. Shortly after, Netbeast launched in January 2017 and has grown 30% monthly. Over 15,000 homes are now Netbeast homes, with more than 3,000 active users taking advantage of the app. The app connects with multiple brands such as Philips Hue, Belkin, Nest, Sonos, TP-Link, Yeelight, LifX and Netatmo.
Founded by CEO Jon Senra Dearle in 2014, Netbeast develops the smart home app Yeti. Yeti has been voted best Internet of Things open source project of 2016. According to the company, 55% of Netbeast’s users are located in the USA, the most developed market to date; with Europe following closely. Currently, the market size in the U.S. is $14.6M with a annual growth rate of 21.8%. The penetration of Smart households is currently 32.5% and is expected to reach 60.7% in 2021, when the market is expected to exceed $32.1M.
“Our two target goals for 2018 are to expand support to up to 25+ smart home brands which will allow us to target more smart home users and will set up the perfect ground to launch a premium version of Yeti,” Senra Dearle told Crowdfund Insider via email. “The second goal is to secure a partnership with a top real estate promoter within Spain which will allow us to push smart home technology within this market.”
Why Crowdcube Spain?
“I’ve been in touch with Oriol and their team for a while now, they reached out to us when we entered startup accelerator Wayra Germany in 2016 and have been in touch since,” added Senra Dearle.
Yeti does not require additional hardware and works (besides through the cloud when you are not at home) locally without requiring to send user’s data over the Internet, aiming to quicken and more effective device control; Yeti works out of the box and detects devices automatically in just a couple seconds. There are two types of solutions in the market which offer a similar service to Netbeast’s. The first type (SmartThings, Wink, Insteon) requires that the purchase of a device for use with an app. The second type (Yonomi, Gideon, Muzzley, Stringify) only connects the products via the cloud-branded server.
Have a crowdfunding offering you'd like to share? Submit an offering for consideration using our Submit a Tip form and we may share it on our site!