Back to news articles
Particle raises $40M Series C to enable the Internet of Things
HAX Team
Particle's Boron 2G/3G Global Starter Kit with EtherSIM
Particle’s Boron 2G/3G Global Starter Kit with EtherSIM. Source: Particle

The following is a guest post by Zach Suppalla, Founder and CEO of Particle.

Our lives are becoming increasingly connected, and the technology that surrounds us is becoming more ubiquitous and intelligent every day. But if you work in a traditional industry — manufacturing, logistics, energy, etc. — the world is less connected and opportunities to catch up with the digital age are complex and confusing.

That’s because technology and innovation are not evenly distributed, and the decades-old manufacturers that lead traditional industries are more likely to be the disrupted than the disruptor. Particle is here to help to change this dynamic; we’re here to empower the next generation of IoT companies and bring the physical world online to fundamentally change how traditional industries operate.

Our success can be measured by our customers’ growth; the average fleet of IoT products on our platform has grown by 70% since the beginning of the year, and our revenue has grown 150% year-over-year. In order to continue expanding our footprint and investing in growth, we raised a $40 million Series C round of investment, led by Qualcomm Ventures and Energy Impact Partners.

Raising this capital is an important milestone for us. And we wanted to take a moment to reflect on it and thank our customers who have been on this crazy journey with us.

Transforming our customers into industry leaders

Our customers have been developing and launching IoT products on the Particle platform since 2013, when we launched our first hardware development kit. Over the past six years, it’s been incredible to see the growth of our customers’ businesses which transformed how our platform supports them. Our customers who started as early innovators are now leaders in their industries. Here are a few examples:

  • Opti is preventing city flooding through its intelligent stormwater management system in forty-one cities around the world; it’s connected solution moves millions of gallons of storm runoff to ensure sewage systems aren’t overloaded.
  • Jacuzzi brought their connected spa product, SmartTub, to market to provide a better experience for their consumers; now with thousands in market (launched in just six months), they’re seeing a 6% lift in retail margin.
  • As micromobility surprised everyone by becoming the fastest-growing market in IoT, our customers like Shared Technologies and Korean-based Olulo are successfully tackling the incumbents in the space.
  • The Air National Guard is using a Dynamis asset tracking solutions with its first responders in public emergencies. This provides real-time data for more efficient coordination with reduced time and cost in critical situations.

That’s just a few of our customers who are creating serious impact with IoT and we’re grateful to be the platform powering their connected solutions.

Oor new and reinvesting partners

Qualcomm Ventures and Energy Impact Partners are incredible partners for Particle as we look towards the future. Qualcomm Ventures was a natural fit for Particle because they make a lot of the technology that is embedded deep within IoT products. As we see a burgeoning opportunity across the energy sector with the potential for social impact, Energy Impact Partners is the right partner to help us change the future of energy.

We’re also pleased that all our major investors from previous raises are continuing to invest in Particle’s growth: Root Ventures, Bonfire Ventures, Industry Ventures, Spark Capital, OATV, Green D Ventures, Counterpart Ventures, and SOSV all participated in this round.

What’s coming next for Particle

Particle will use the money raised in this round of funding to continue developing our enterprise IoT platform suite, as well as scale our engineering and product teams. These new team hires will help bolster our professional engineering service (Particle Studios) and help our customers bring their products to market. We’ll also be expanding into new global markets while hiring in sales and marketing.

We are optimistic about the future, and if it wasn’t clear, we are hiring. The IoT industry is complicated and in need of talented individuals who can help bring the cost of connectivity down and help our customers build the connected products of the future. When this has been accomplished, entire industries will be revolutionized. And we’ll be out there, leading the charge.

Particle Series C raise in the news