Better known for the company’s hardware that reports the weather outside, Netatmo has teamed up with Philippe Starck to create a new device that gives you complete control over the climate inside your home from your smartphone. And unlike similar wireless thermostats from Honeywell
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Paris-based Internet of Things startup Netatmo, which makes personal weather station and air quality sensor devices (as seen in the video above) for use with Android and iOS apps, has just closed a €4.5 million ($5.8 million) funding round. It plans to use the funding to launch new connected devices in the second half of this year, including additional indoor air modules (to be announced this month), and also rain and wind meters.
Investors in the round — Netatmo’s first external funding — include Iris Capital, FSN PME, which is the French National Fund for Digital Society, along with Pascal Cagni, Non Executive Director of Vivendi SA and Kingfisher PLC and former Vice-President & General Manager of Apple Europe, Middle East, India and Africa.
Netatmo launched its consumer focused weather station monitoring device last fall. The device allows users to track outdoor weather conditions and environmental conditions indoors — such as air quality and CO2 level — and monitor and chart that data via the corresponding apps.
Although Netatmo is not breaking out device sales data yet, it says its weather stations are currently monitoring the environment in more than 105 countries. ”After a few months on the market, demand continues to grow, and we are experiencing significant increases in sales,” Netatmo CEO Fred Potter noted in a statement. ”Our new financial partners will allow us to pursue further innovations, develop new devices and expand our distribution channels and territories,”
Netatmo said it plans to focus on development and operations throughout Europe, Asia and the U.S., with the goal to expand its headcount as it ramps up the business this year.
Commenting on the funding in a statement, Pascal Cagni added: ”The Internet of Things is the next step in the rise of an even more connected digital world… Thanks to Netatmo’s talented teams and ability to integrate advanced software with state-of-the-art hardware, this company is built to play a leading role in that revolution.”
Ever heard of Netatmo in the past? Well, neither have we, but here we are with the Netatmo Urban Weather Station, which has just launched with national retailer Brookstone. Just what the heck is the Urban Weather Station all about? Well, it has been touted to be the first personal weather station in the market that will boast of air quality sensors, and even better is the fact that since just about everyone and their grandfather owns a smartphone, the Netatmo Urban Weather Station will also play nice with the iPhone, iPad and Android-powered devices without missing a beat. In fact, the Urban Weather Station is no stranger to being under the spotlight, especially when it has been recognized for its innovative design and received three Innovations and Engineering Honoree Awards at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year.
You might ask yourself whether you actually have need for the Urban Weather Station or not, considering how you can always pull such data from an app on your smartphone, or refer to the desktop in your home or office which tends to be on most of the time. Well, the Netatmo Urban Weather Station intends to fill a niche market, where it enables users to keep track of track indoor as well as outdoor environmental elements, and these will include temperature, air quality, humidity, barometric pressure, and CO2 concentration among others, now how about that?
Specially developed for the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android-powered devices, the Urban Weather Station is capable of recording and wirelessly transmit data over a Wi-Fi network to the Netatmo App for future viewing, regardless of where you are. The asking price for the Netatmo Urban Weather Station is a relatively affordable $179, especially when you take into consideration the novelty factor attached to it. Surely you now have a more accurate assistant in letting you know whether today would be ideal to hold that family BBQ that you have been mulling over…
[ Netatmo Urban Weather Station copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
We haven’t seen weather stations garner the same level of clever mobile integration as other pieces of household gear — like, say, thermostats. Netatmo wants its newly available Urban Weather Station to inject a similar dose of life into a category that some of us still associate with the thermometer by the window. The aluminum tube design certainly gives a fresh look to the WiFi-linked indoor and outdoor sensors, but the real trick is the matching iOS (and eventually Android) app. It’s for more than just gauging the wisdom of biking to work: the free app tracks historical trends and shares them with fellow users in a network that Netatmo hopes will provide a better understanding of wider-scale and longer-term trends. The sensors go beyond just obvious air quality, humidity, pressure and temperature conditions as well, flagging noise levels and warning if the CO2 levels are high enough to warrant airing out the house. The $179 price for the Urban Weather Station isn’t trivial, but neither is knowing just how well you can cope with your environment.
Filed under: Household, Mobile
Netatmo Urban Weather Station tells iOS users when it’s safe to brave the great outdoors (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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