IoT device manufacturers use Memfault to manage edge hardware, raising $35M, doubling headcount to 80 by year-end, exploring AI to improve products.
Memfault, a platform that allows IoT device manufacturers to find issues in their edge products over the cloud, has closed a $24 million Series B funding round led by Stripes with participation from the 5G Open Innovation Lab, Partech and Uncork. The investment brings Memfault’s total raised to more than $35 million. Memfault provides software development kits (SDK) that let manufacturers upload performance data and error reports to a private cloud. There, it’s stored, analyzed and indexed so engineers can access it via a web interface to look for anomalies and troubleshoot problems as they occur.
Memfault was founded in 2018 by François Baldassari, Tyler Hoffman, and Chris Coleman, who first conceived of the platform while working at smartwatch startup Pebble. At Pebble, the trio had to investigate hardware issues that were often difficult to fix remotely, which led them to create cloud-based software and performance monitoring infrastructure to improve the process. Memfault has a sizeable market foothold with “hundreds” of companies in its customer base including Bose, Logitech, Lyft and Traeger.
Memfault plans to use the proceeds from its Series B to expand its platform’s software support and invest in out-of-the-box integrations, adding to its existing partnerships with semiconductor manufacturers including Infineon, Nordic Semiconductors and NXP. Memfault also intends to expand its headcount, aiming to roughly double in size from 38 people to 80 by the end of the year. Additionally, Memfault is exploring ways it could build AI into future products, although that work remains in the early stages.
Memfault competes with Amazon’s AWS IoT Device Management, Microsoft’s Azure IoT Edge, Google’s Cloud IoT and startups like Balena and Zededa, whose platforms offer remote tools for monitoring security threats across IoT device fleets. However, François Baldassari, Memfault’s co-founder and CEO, argues that both approaches end up being more expensive and require more technical resources than deploying a service like Memfault.
The pandemic-spurred chip shortage affected Memfault’s customers and market “quite a bit”, but François stressed that Memfault hasn’t been growing at any cost. He said that the company has maintained “high” gross margins and a low burn multiple and is focused on building a long-term sustainable business. He believes that most customers and prospects are willing to spend on software and automation to stay ahead of competition.
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