The entrepreneur believes his keyless device will become ubiquitous across all industries, including government and enterprises
The smart home industry is growing rapidly across the world — a report by Reportlinker this year cites that the market for these devices and services will hit over US$100 billion by 2023.
It’s not difficult to see why. Penetration of smartphones, which users can download apps on to control their smart devices remotely, has skyrocketed; cloud technology adoption is ubiquitous; and, just as important, the devices are becoming more affordable and simple to use, pushing up their demand (just look at the sales for Google Home last year).
The business opportunity in this sector is clearly evident to see and many entrepreneurs have risen up to seek their fortunes in this burgeoning market. One such enterprising individual is Anthony Chow, co-founder of Singapore-based smart access solutions startup igloohome.
Chow launched his startup just as the smart home industry was taking off back in 2015, but only rolled out its first batch of products — the Smart Keybox which allows short-term home rental hosts to store keycards or keys — in 2016.
How the Smart Keybox works is that it allows homeowners to generate a PIN code via the app and send it over to their guests to unlock the Keybox. The code expires after a preset date. Airbnb hosts can integrate their igloohome account with their Airbnb calendar at US$9.90 per month. Today, the company also offers its products to retail shops — it plans to roll out to 2,000 businesses by the end of this year.
Since its founding, igloohome has attracted over US$5.3 million in funding; its latest round, a US$4 million Series A, was led by Insignia Ventures Partners and included an existing investor Wavemaker Partners, as well as new investors such as Phillip Private Equity, X Capital Ventures, Kuok Meng Xiong of K3 Ventures and angel investor Koh Boon Hwee.
To find out why consumers and investors are hot on his product and understand more about his business and background, e27 conducted an email interview with Chow.
Here is the excerpt, edited for clarity:
What were you doing before founding Igloohome, and how did what you do previously influence you to become an entrepreneur?
Prior to igloohome, I was working in Singtel in the data science team. I was leading a team of engineers and data scientists to develop algorithms to improve customer engagement. I always enjoyed building products and solving problems and I have taken that spirit with me in starting igloohome.
Why the hardware space, and why a smart home lock? What was the catalyst for this idea?
My partners and I were big fans of Airbnb, where we were both hosts and guests. Holding full-time jobs and running Airbnb was not an easy task, especially the coordination of guests’ arrival at your place and passing them the keys. This sparked the idea of a smart lock that can manage Airbnb check-ins by itself, and igloohome was born. We soon realised that many home/property owners also found the concept of being able to grant access remotely very useful.
Did you harbour any apprehensions when you founded igloohome? Seeing as the smart home industry then was still relatively new.
We saw a niche market that was relatively young and with a huge potential to grow. This is also a market where the pains of key exchange are real and is an impediment to the millions of rental hosts around the world in running and growing their business.
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Can you elaborate on the challenges you faced in the first few months of igloohome? How long did it take for you to arrive at the final iteration of the product?
We started out by hacking and modifying existing digital locks on the market to connect to our Airbnb account. It took us 2 months to get the first prototype out, and we were very proud to have it installed on our door and see it functioning. Soon, we had 50 Airbnb hosts testing out our rudimentary product, and working with us through our iterations. We finally had out first shippable product out 9 months from the start of the company.
Beyond the ideation and prototype phase, what other hurdles did you face in the later stages? For example, I often hear of hardware startups collapsing when they face insurmountable problems during the manufacturing cycle.
For a hardware startup, it is important to find the right manufacturing partners who are able to deliver quality at scale, and one who is able to offer you good credit terms. It took us some trial and error, and we are happy to have now more than 5 manufacturing partners that we work with across China and Korea.
More consumers are buying smart home devices, but many are still wary of its inherent risks — including exploitation by malicious hackers, or it being rendered completely inoperable due to poor software. At igloohome, how do you calibrate your design processes to tackle the consequences of these risks?
One of the important features of igloohome solutions is that we enable our locks to be managed remotely without the need for an Internet connection. This is achieved via an innovative cryptographic method where the locks and our apps are synced via time and a secret token, very similar to how a banking token works. This ensures high reliability and security, and functionally, it enables long battery life and a hassle-free installation process.
What are your thoughts on the future of the smart home industry in Singapore? Is the infrastructure robust enough?
While still in its nascent phase, the smart home industry is experiencing rapid growth. This is driven by consumers being able to access to more smart home products easily via e-commerce platforms from USA and China, where penetration of smart home devices are higher than in Singapore. Also, we see property developers starting to develop properties already come with smart home devices, and this trend will help make such devices become the norm of future residential developments.
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What can we expect from igloohome 1 to 2 years from now? Where are your next target markets?
We expect igloohome to offer solutions for keyless access for both consumers, businesses and governments to help to solve their pains of property, asset and infrastructure management. Igloohome is now available to over 80 countries via our strong global network of over 40 distribution partners, and we intend to deepen our efforts across some of our core markets in the next 1-2 years.
Do you plan to raise additional VC funding? Would you consider launching another indiegogo campaign?
We have plans for rapid growth and additional VC funding is definitely in our sights.
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