Turns out the most recent acquisition news from Amazon has a Philly tie.
San Francisco-based eero, which announced Monday it has been bought by Jeff Bezos‘ company, counts Philly-based VC firm First Round Capital among its initial investors.
The company makes a mesh network Wi-Fi system designed with smart homes in mind. In addition to a tri-band router, it uses beacons to keep internet access stable and reliable across your home. There’s a clear tie between the two companies: with an expanding line of smart home products, it’s right up Amazon’s alley to offer Wi-Fi enhancers.
“We are incredibly impressed with the eero team and how quickly they invented a Wi-Fi solution that makes connected devices just work,” said Dave Limp, SVP of Amazon devices and services, in a press release. “We have a shared vision that the smart home experience can get even easier, and we’re committed to continue innovating on behalf of customers.”
First Round Capital led the company’s initial $5 million round of funding in 2014 with Stanford University, Menlo Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Homebrew Ventures and individual investors — including Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian — as co-investors. As part of that first investment, First Round Capital partner Rob Hayes joined the startup’s board of directors.
Including a $50 million raise in 2016, the company has raised at least $74 million in capital, according to two SEC filings. Crunchbase data puts that number at $90 million.
Huge congrats to @geteero on raising $50M to make WiFi headache-free! Coming to a @BestBuy near you soon! https://t.co/X5i2uQtsze
— First Round (@firstround) May 25, 2016
“We’re excited to learn from and work closely with a team that is defining the future of the home, accelerate our mission, and bring eero systems to more customers around the globe,” said eero CEO Nick Weaver, the Stanford grad who founded the company in 2014.
According to LinkedIn, eero has over 160 employees, mostly in the Bay Area. At the start of 2018, TechCrunch reported the VC-backed company had laid off 30 employees — roughly one-fifth of its workforce.
Emails to First Round Capital inquiring about the financial details of the transaction were not immediately responded.
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