Bringing digital innovation to the kitchen is hard.. really hard.
Joe Ray from WIRED describes the smart kitchen as being stupid, but I think really it’s a function of its complexity. The kitchen is arguably the most important room in the home and the engine of the household, powering many of life’s daily tasks from cooking and cleaning and increasingly is the focal point when socialising and entertaining.
It’s also the most complex room in the home. Kitchen appliance manufacturers, some of the largest and most successful companies in the world, have been innovating in the kitchen for decades, offering a multitude of machines providing diverse (but silo’d) experiences at various price points, all doing their best to make our lives that little bit easier. The result is that most kitchens use appliances from multiple brands – and to make things even more challenging, these appliances are constantly depreciating, breaking down, being repaired and ultimately replaced for newer models at varying cadences.
This, in large part, is why consumers have been left so underwhelmed by attempts to bring more intelligence to the kitchen. There have been valiant attempts to try create consumer value – recipe apps have somewhat successfully brought a level of variety and balance to our diets, and connected burners and pans have attempted to reduce human error in the cooking process, but these are point solutions and experiences in a cooking process that can often involve a multitude of steps, from ideation, buying ingredients, food prep, cooking, serving, cleaning etc; often touching off a number of brands, appliances, tools along the way. To ‘enjoy’ a digital experience, consumers are, at best, being asked to jump from one interface to the next, but the ‘connectivity’ is not brought digitally, but from human persistence, which ultimately fatigues.
Consumers want and demand better experiences. Always will. And despite its failings, this applies to the kitchen to. The Smart Home is a success; we love our connected thermostats, our network controlled sound systems, our smart TVs, our voice controlled.. everything.. And the kitchen will be no different, but it needs a different approach, and from the appliance manufacturers we spoke too, they realise this too. This is Fresco’s vision for their Kitchen OS; a kitchen where 1+1 = 3. A kitchen where appliances work in unison together irrespective of the manufacturer, to deliver rich UX in the kitchen and removing the complexity involved in making great food.
We love this vision, and well done to Ben and the Fresco team for convincing the world’s leading appliance manufacturers to love it too. Looking forward to seeing what happens next.
imAdme is a mobile advertising platform that connects mobile operators and brands to customers.
Founded in 2012, mAdme is revolutionizing Mobile Advertising and Engagement by seamlessly connecting mobile operators and brands to customers, linking them with on-device content that is relevant and on-point in a clear, simple, and non-intrusive way.
mAdme’s management have a long history of successful innovation in the mobile space. The team has been at the forefront of many industry-changing technologies including mobile messaging and mobilecloud, and is committed to realizing the full potential of mobile engagement.
Cesanta develop & distribute embedded softwares and hardwares, with a focus on connected products and Internet of Things (IoT).
Cesanta is proud to have among our customers many Fortune 500 companies as well as medium and small size businesses.
Security and quality of our solutions is a paramount for Cesanta and the fact that Mongoose Web Server is used by NASA aboard of the International Space Station is the best confirmation to it.
Among their products are:
- Mongoose Web Server – an embedded web server and networking library
- Mongoose OS – an operating system for low-power microcontrollers
- mDash – an IoT management back end
- CCM – Cloud Connectivity Module
- mJS – an embedded JavaScript engine for C/C++
- Frozen – a low footprint JSON parser and emitter for C/C++
Cesanta’s solutions are integrated into over 500 commercial products and deployed to over 1,000,000 production devices.
Alpha Wireless is a market-leading specialist in designing and manufacturing high performing, superior quality antenna solutions.
As the advent of 5G technologies takes hold, Alpha Wireless’ goal is to enable the roll out of next-generation telecommunications networks, globally. As consumers’ appetite for mobile connectivity and data soars, their antennas are future-ready.
Alpha don’t just respond to current problems, they are committed to anticipating the future challenges and requirements of the wireless industry so that they can lead the way with solutions from macro to small cells, indoors and out, with solutions for MIMO, beamforming and concealment.
Alpha work closely with network operators, neutral hosts, OEMs and municipalities to design solutions that meet their individual requirements are cost effective and help overcome environmental challenges and economic pressures, while preserving the natural landscape.
Alpha Wireless antennae improve coverage and capacity. They provide all-in-one, preassembled solutions that minimise the costs associated with field force, labour, rent & backhaul.
Cubic Telecom is building a future where everything is intelligent and connected.
Cubic Telecom is a global connectivity platform company. They offer mobility solutions that power connectivity for leading Internet of things (IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M) and mobile device companies across the globe.
Clients of Cubic Telecom include Audi, Lenovo, HP, Rakuten and LeTV.
Act was an early stage investor in Cubic with Qualcomm Ventures and has been joined by co-investors Audi and Sierra Wireless.
Providing connectivity in over 100 countries and flexible over-the-air (OTA) device management; Cubic Telecom enables global scalability with local connectivity anytime, anywhere.
Lime Microsystems specialises in field programmable RF (FPRF) transceivers, SDR platforms and ecosystem technology for the next generation of wireless broadband systems.
Lime Microsystems specialises in field programmable RF (FPRF) transceivers, SDR platforms and ecosystem technology for the next generation of wireless broadband systems. These products offer an unprecedented level of configurability and allow system designers to create wireless communication networking equipment that can be set and reconfigured to run on any wireless communications frequency and mobile standard.
Their products offer an unprecedented level of configurability and allow system designers to create wireless communication networking equipment that can be set and reconfigured to run on any wireless communications frequency and mobile standard.
Lime’s technology has been adopted by organisations around the world for a wide range of applications from consumer communications equipment — femtocells and repeaters — to software defined radio devices for military and emergency services. Applications include comms infrastructure, disaster relief networks, M2M technology and test / verification systems.
Lime works closely with industry partners to optimise RF and baseband solutions to ensure the ecosystem for the entire end equipment design is in place. Its partnerships help customers achieve high performance with lower device and manufacturing costs, less design resource and optimised inventory.