Colorado tech companies are at the forefront of the connected devices, automation, Internet of Things and cleantech sectors. There isn't quite the volume of companies as there is in the Valley, but that doesn't stop major innovations from being made in these areas. Here are five companies that are making huge strides this year in these emerging industries that you can support by trying out in your own home:
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Revolv, a Boulder-based "smart home" company led by CEO Tim Enwall, is looking to support hundreds of more devices in 2014. Revolv wants its smart home solution app to be the easiest way for homeowners to connect all their automation devices. Revolv pledges to continue adding support until able to connect over 95 percent of smart home devices.
In addition to making a name for itself as a Colorado digital company, Revolv is also gaining traction as a manufacturer: its Hub product allows app users to wirelessly control their devices in their homes without an Ethernet cable. The Hub is assembled and manufactured in Frederick, something that the team will continue "here in the US for the foreseeable future until we hit scale.”
The team is now over 20 people and is backed by Foundry Group.
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Boulder-based Yonomi is a free app that automatically detects, streamlines and extends the capabilities of devices within a home network, simplifying the routines required to manage them. It just launched this spring and is currently in beta (you can still sign up though).
Yonomi focuses on what it calls the “casually connected” user, or consumers who own one to two Internet of Things home devices, most commonly Sonos speakers and the Nest thermostat. About 43 million Americans fit into this category, according to Harlan Blynn, who heads marketing and finance as part of Yonomi’s core founding team.
A common use case of the app is the routine of watching TV, Blynn said. When the TV turns on, the Yonomi app would adjust the screen brightness, room lights and sound, precisely to the user’s liking, which he or she would have set through the app’s simple interface after downloading it for the first time. You can find out more here.
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Brought to you by the RentBits team and in line with RentBits' goal of simplifying the renting process, Remotely is web interface and app that just launched this year. The team is led by CEO Dan Daugherty, whose goal for Remotely is to bring home automation to over 2 million rental properties (that's the number of existing RentBits customers they can work with).
An example of how Remotely makes a renter's life easier? Daughtery said he can take just a few seconds to change the entry code on a rental unit no matter where he is. That saves him the time and hassle of a trip, but it also allows him to avoid a fee of $250 each year to change the locks on all the rental units he owns.
Remotely is a key part of eight-year-old RentBits' growth strategy. Find out more here.
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Fact: nearly half of all water used for residential irrigation is wasted due to evaporation and wind run-off. That is a huge problem in terms of water efficiency. Rachio’s smart sprinkler controller, Iro, was designed to minimize water waste.
The team at Rachio, which clocks in at about 10 people, designed a sprinkler system that adjusts itself in real-time to changes in local weather to maximize the efficiency of your sprinklers. At work and its been raining all day? Iro can self-adjust to turn sprinklers off. The first shipment of Iro was so successful that it caused a backorder and the second shipment is already in the works.
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Snug Home's SnuggPro platform delivers detailed reports to homeowners on how to maximize energy efficiency in under 20 minutes. This is a huge step in changing each individual's footprint in real-time.
By simply filling out the input fields such as the age of the home, cost of utility bills and thermostat data, SnuggPro gives financial details, step-by-step solutions and additional advice to the homeowner. The software platform has performed more than 5,000 home-energy audits and counting.
