Google’s Nest Acquires Dropcam for $555 Million

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487929_10151537394649318_1869356745_nSmart thermostat and connected home device marker Nest which was acquired by Google in January has announced it is acquiring Dropcam in a move the two firms say will help keep home owners connected to their homes no matter where they are in the world.

According to Matt Rogers,  Nest’s founder and head of Engineering, “Dropcam built their company from the ground up with the goal of helping people stay connected to the things they care about. In a matter of a few short years, their team has managed to create products that change how people interact with their homes. So naturally, we couldn’t help but feel our companies would be a good match.”

Founded in 2009 by Greg Duffy and Aamir Virani Dropcam is a cloud-based Wi-Fi video monitoring service with free live streaming, two-way talk and remote viewing that helps home owners stay connected with places, people and pets from wherever they are. The two co-founders were inspired after they saw both their dads struggle with “IP cameras” and traditional security cameras that were hard to use, expensive and low quality.

Dropcam and Nest will work together to reinvent products that will help shape the future of the conscious home and bring their shared vision to more and more people around the world. Dropcam products will still be sold online and in stores. And Dropcam customers will still continue to use their Dropcam accounts but after the deal is sealed, Nest will incorporate Dropcam into its systems, including customer support and dataunder Nest’s privacy policy.

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Dropcam’s products include Dropcam, Dropcam Pro and Dropcam Tabs. Dropcam Pro and Dropcam have full 720p streaming, motion and sound alerts, night vision, two-way talk, and pinch-to-zoom. With the optional Cloud Video Recording service, customers can access stored footage for the past seven or thirty days. Dropcam Pro retails for $199 while Dropcam at $149. Live video monitoring is free whil optional Cloud Video Recording (CVR) is $9.95/month for seven days of continuous recording, $29.95/month for thirty days.

Dropcam has raised over $47 million from Accel Partners, Menlo Ventures, Mitch Kapor, David Cowan, Aydin Senkut, Ben Narasin, Institutional Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers.

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Sam Wakoba
Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Sam Wakoba is a pan-African technology journalist, author, entrepreneur, technology business mentor, judge, educationalist, and a sought-after speaker and panelist across Africa’s innovation ecosystem. He is the convenor of the popular monthly #TechNight evening event and the #StartupEast Awards and Conference, platforms that bring together startup founders, developers, entrepreneurs, investors, content creators, and tech professionals from across the continent. For more than 16 years, Sam has reported on and analysed Africa’s technology landscape, covering some of the continent’s most impactful, and at times controversial policies, programs, investors, co-founders, startups, and corporations. His work is known for its independence, depth, and fairness, with a singular goal of helping build and strengthen Africa’s nascent technology ecosystem. Beyond journalism, Sam is a business analyst and consultant, working with brands, universities, corporates, SMEs, and startups across East Africa, as well as international companies entering the East African market or scaling across Africa. In his free time, he volunteers as a consulting editor and fintech analyst at Business Tech Kenya, a business, technology, and data firm that publishes reports, reviews, and insights on business and technology trends in Kenya. Follow him on X: @SamWakoba