Kenyan firm BRCK has closed a $1.2 million seed funding round in order to launch its modem-cum-router device aimed at solving last-mile connectivity issues in Africa.
The company is a spinout from Kenyan crowdmapping firm Ushahidi , and claims its device will bring a seamless internet connection to remote areas, a “critical innovation for a variety of sectors across Africa”.
East African Community (EAC) figures suggest 90 percent of schools and 30 percent of hospitals in the region are off-grid, while only 24 percent of the developing world is connected to the internet. The BRCK device seeks to tackle these problems through caching and distributing content to remote locations over mobile networks and setting up reliable Wi-Fi hotspots.
“The BRCK taps into the unique market characteristic of emerging market internet subscribers: 65 percent of whom access the internet wirelessly,” the company said. “The BRCK allows users to leverage the nearly ubiquitous mobile broadband and turn it into a connection designed for productivity, rather than solely consumption.
According to the company, the BRCK was designed to provide redundancy where power and internet infrastructure are poor, automatically switching to inbuilt batteries of the power goes down and to its own 3G connectivity when any SIM you’ve inserted can’t get a signal.
“Power spikes and outages are everyday occurrences in Nairobi and across Sub-Saharan Africa, no matter your income level,” BRCK said. “In Nigeria for example, you can expect up to 300 outages each year for 5-8 hours at a time. Power spikes are even more unpredictable.” The device was successfully tested in the Lake Turkana region last year.
The investment round was led by early stage investor Invested Development, along with Omvestments, Urban.us, Cheryl Heller and Gary Scheft of CommonWise LLC and Synergy Growth.
Invested Development founder and managing director Miguel Granier said: “Building a hardware company in Africa will have tremendous impact for the region if successful… well beyond the very useful product being developed. The potential impact and scale of this company made it an easy investment decision. BRCK uses technology to solve problems where there is a significant market gap.”
➤ BRCK
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Spark’s Electron board can now power cellular-connected devices in over 100 countries
We wrote last month about the Spark Electron , the startup’s first cellular-connected development board. Now, just in the time for the end of its Kickstarter campaign, the company has announced international deals to make its bundled SIM card work in over 100 countries.
The move means individual makers and companies in Latin America, Australia, most of Asia and a large part of Africa will now be able to use the Electron as the basis for new connected devices.
Spark CEO Zach Supalla tells TNW that he sees huge potential for the Electron beyond the western world:
The company’s working with Telefonica to support global mobile networking. In North America, most of Europe, South America, China, Indonesia, South Africa, Russia and parts of the Middle East, a monthly 1MB data plan – the equivalent of 20,000 messages per month – will cost $2.99 with each additional MB priced at $0.99.
Elsewhere in the world, the pricing ranges from the same $2.99 monthly fee with a higher $1.99 cost for additional MB of data, to $4.99 per month with $3.99 per extra MB in Singapore and Taiwan.
You can see an exhaustive list of individual country pricing here . All of Spark’s data deals are contract-free.
The Electron campaign has far exceeded its original $30,000 – a target that was deliberately modest – and will start shipping the new hardware in October.
Supalla predicts you’ll start to see a lot new Kickstarter campaigns with the cellular-connected board at their heart popping up once that happens.
One of the campaign’s stretch goals was adding two free months of the basic data plan for every Electron purchased if it hit $400,000. It’s now well past that point and headed for the next at $600,000, which will see backers get three free months with each purchase.
It’s worth highlighting that while the Electron is available as both a $39 2G model and a $59 3G model, the company’s pushing the latter as some international networks are going to start phasing out the older data standard over the next year.
Spark’s latest product definitely has massive potential and it’ll be really interesting to see how international data provision fosters new Internet of Things (IoT) projects globally.
Factor in the Konekt Dash – another board that supports cellular connectivity in over 100 countries – which launched last week, and it’s about to get a lot easier to bring the IoT to anywhere in the world.
➤ Spark Electron [Kickstarter]
Image credits: Spark
Read next : Spark’s Electron brings simple cellular connections to the Internet of Things
Blackphone details incoming features for PrivatOS and a new privacy-focused app store
Privacy and security-focused device maker Blackphone has today detailed a number of updates due to land for its PrivatOS early next year.
Central to the changes is the concept of ‘Spaces’ – secure, self-contained areas of the device for apps, data and accounts. This allows each user to create whichever Spaces they need, such as split ‘work’ and ‘personal’ spaces, or a kid-friendly area for when the little one wants to play with your phone. A ‘Silent Space’ is included by default and and includes the company’s ‘Silent Suite’ of encrypted communications apps.
Alongside the introduction of ‘Spaces’, Blackphone also announced that a new privacy-focused app store would roll out with PrivatOS 1.1 update in January next year.
First launched in February 2014 , the Blackphone BP1 is still available for sale via the company’s website , starting from $629.
➤ Blackphone’s New PrivatOS Enhances Users’ Privacy While Granting Access To Apps [Press release]