Santa Monica, USA, Aug 20, 2015: Ring, a startup that is into making “smart” doorbell has announced a US $28 million Series B round led by none other than the maverick founder of the Virgin Group Richard Branson.
The announcement by the Santa Monica-based company was put out on its official blog. The fresh round of funding also has money coming in from Shea Ventures and American Family Insurance. It follows the US $4.5 million Series A round last December.
The stated mission of Ring is “to reduce crimes in the neighbourhoods”. The blog post said: It’s the statement we live by when we design and engineer not only the products you see today, but the future features and innovations that we will deliver for a long time to come. It also makes the late nights and seemingly impossible tasks more bearable as we know our hard work will create happy customers and make a positive impact on our homes, our communities, and the world.
The company started in a garage 4 years ago. From a staff strength of 4, it grew to 10, then moved on to a warehouse. Just a few days ago, the team moved over to the brand new, double-in-size office space.
The smart doorbell has a camera, two-way audio, and motion sensors. Ring claimed its product had stopped at least one break-in from occurring each day. Now, the startup said, it was ready “to take it to the next level.”
Image Credit: Ring blog