Canary raises $10M for new home security product

1 hour ago Mar. 5, 2014 - 7:00 AM PST

Canary, a connected home security device designed for those who live in apartments or who dont want to pay monthly fees to the big giants in the industry, has raised $10 million in funding from Khosla Ventures, Bobby Yazdani (an early investor in Google and Dropbox) and a number of the firms initial seed investors, including Two Sigma Ventures. The funding comes in the wake of a successful Indiegogo campaign (it raised $2 million) and a $1.2 million seed round.

Canary makes a device containing a connected camera and a series of sensors. The idea is to offer a level of home security for people who might live in apartments (theres nothing to install) or who might want a security system designed to alert them when things happen in the home, but not call police. When I covered the company last summer, I wrote:

[T]his is a nifty product for those wanting to know if someone entered their house while they were on vacation, but less aimed at those who view a security system as something to scare away an intruder or protect people inside a home. [Canary CEO Adam] Sager says that ability is coming, with an ability to hook in the system to a call center, but thats not the priority today.

The funding will help Canary build out the $199 product and drive adoption. The product will ship to backers later this spring, and everyone else in the summer.

The funding also puts Canary in the company of SmartThings and Pebble, which also completed successful crowdfunding campaigns and then went on to raise significant venture capital. However, there is plenty of competition in this space from the hub makers that pair with home monitoring sensors, like SmartThings and Lowes Iris system, to other dedicated connected devices aimed at the low-end security conscious home or apartment dweller, including Piper, Scoutand Alertly. At the high end there are Alarm.com, ADT and more.

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Canary raises $10M for new home security product