The First IoT Reliability Platform: Our Investment in Memfault

Connected devices are everywhere. As the internet has found its way into our homes, it’s also found its way into the devices that permeate our everyday lives - from cars to thermostats, and everything in between. The average American has 10 connected devices in their home, and including B2B use cases, there are already more than 13B connected IoT devices across the US*.

While “smart” devices are designed to make our lives easier, there’s nothing more frustrating than when those devices malfunction, and we’re powerless to fix them. Today, IoT developers have almost no visibility into how their devices perform once they’re deployed into the field. And when devices don’t work as they’re supposed to, device makers suffer from the costs of device loss, increased customer support, and lower customer satisfaction and retention. Unfortunately, tooling to improve device reliability is difficult to build in-house and taxes scarce developer resources, so the vast majority of IoT devices in the field today are left unmonitored.

Memfault’s Solution

Memfault enables IoT developers to remotely debug any connected device. Memfault’s product gives full visibility down to the firmware level to help developers identify top bugs and usability metrics while gauging overall device performance. The platform supports any operating system and hardware configuration, and its SDK uniquely lets users implement telemetry over the air, even after a device is already in the field.

With Memfault, developers can automate time-consuming firmware debugging steps and resolve issues in development or in the field. Moreover, Memfault empowers developers to remotely ship secure, scalable firmware updates to devices on an individual, cohort, or fleetwide basis to A/B test different versions, stage rollouts, and monitor new features in real time.

Stripes Leads Memfault’s $24M Series B

We’re excited to partner with Memfault as they help IoT developers observe, debug, and improve connected devices at scale. As we spoke with Memfault customers, we consistently heard amazing reviews - customers rated the product 9.3/10, on average, and raved that they would never bring another IoT device to market without Memfault. The platform is already powering millions of devices across rapidly growing startups and publicly traded companies like Whoop, Lyft, and Logitech.

When we met with Memfault founders François Baldassari (CEO), Chris Coleman (CTO), and Tyler Hoffman (Head of Developer Experience), their vision for defining observability for connected devices blew us away. Prior to Memfault, François, Chris, and Tyler led engineering teams at top connected device companies, including Pebble, Fitbit, and Oculus. Because there was no 3rd-party IoT reliability solution on the market at the time, they had to build it themselves in-house (at multiple different companies). The trio built Memfault to serve the rest of the market, and after doing deeper technical diligence on Memfault’s product, it became difficult for us to imagine why any modern IoT business wouldn’t eventually use it.

We’re thrilled to partner with Memfault as they leverage their amazing product to define the IoT reliability category — one that Memfault has the product, team, and roadmap to create and win. We look forward to working with François, Chris, Tyler, and the entire Memfault team on the journey ahead!

*13B devices excludes personal devices such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

The information noted above is representative as of January 2023 and has not been updated since.