Japanese startup Nature raises $4.7M to grow smart AC control business globally

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The Nature team
Image credit: Nature

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Japanese startup Nature develops an IoT product for smart air-conditioner named Nature Remo. The company announced on Thursday that it has fundraised 500 million yen (about $4.7 million US) from Energy & Environment Investment and Japanese internet company DeNA (TSE:2432). The investment from DeNA will be replaced with the one from Delight Ventures, which was recently introduced as the investment arm of DeNA. For Nature, this follows their 100 million yen ($9.5 million US) funding from Daiwa Corporate Investment back in February of last year but the funding round is unknown.

Nature was founded in Boston by Haruumi Shiode who previously worked for Mitsui & Co. and later obtained an MBA at Harvard University. Nature Remo allows users to turn on their air conditioner at home before they arrive by using their mobile, integrate with Google Home and Amazon Echo to control a TV set and room lights, and even develop a third-party service from scratch via API (application programming interface).

Nature Remo was introduced back in 2016, and subsequently succeeded in raising a total of 22 million yen from three crowdfunding campaigns at Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Makuake. In 2018, the firm started selling the product at Amazon, as well as electronics retail stores such as Bic Camera or Kojima, allowing general users other than early adopters to purchase. They have been seeing a steady growth by launching a suite bundling Nature Remo mini with Google Home Mini as a starter kit for smart home beginners this year. We were told that more than 10,000 Nature Remo items have been sold to date.

The company will use the funds to double their team size to strengthen engineering, sales and customer support. Expecting to launch a new home solution called Nature Remo E within this year, they are foraying into energy management business. They will bring their all headquarters functions back to Japan for better global business expansion.

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