Arduino raises $22M Series B round • Hacker News Board

Re: Arduino raises $22M Series B round

#101

Post by mbanzi » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 3:24 PM UTC

frollo wrote: post #83

londons_explore wrote: post #7

Oh :-( Every time a cool little company gets VC funding, you know that the free and opensource projects will dry up, and before long they'll be making premium high end products and suing anyone who tries to compete.

Given Arduino's origin and first history this is especially depressing. Good old Adriano is now well and buried.

Hi (co founder of Arduino here) Good old Arduino is still here, we're still releasing a ton of tools for the community, we're still innovating every day. We're using most of the funds to develop our professional offering. I believe this is a natural progression for companies like us. Our investors leave free to work on whatever technology and let us open source anything we feel can contribute to the community. They never interfere.. The R&D on the Professional products eventually benefits everyone. I strongly disagree with your statement

Re: Arduino raises $22M Series B round

#102

Post by tomaszsobota » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 3:25 PM UTC

YetAnotherNick wrote: post #54

londons_explore wrote: post #7

Oh :-( Every time a cool little company gets VC funding, you know that the free and opensource projects will dry up, and before long they'll be making premium high end products and suing anyone who tries to compete.

I think you got it all wrong. VC funding makes things cool because they could afford to loose money and make product better. Enshittification starts when they stop receive VC funding like reddit or docker. Reddit was founded 18 years ago and for the first 10 years it was good because they don't have any pressure to make money.

A VC will not just sit idly when their investment starts going down the sink. They'll do what they can to influence the decision-making towards more revenue. There are exceptions, but the article is rather clear the new round comes from large-cap corporate entities.

Re: Arduino raises $22M Series B round

#103

Post by RobotToaster » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 3:25 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #13

londons_explore wrote: post #7

Oh :-( Every time a cool little company gets VC funding, you know that the free and opensource projects will dry up, and before long they'll be making premium high end products and suing anyone who tries to compete.

I predict they'll go after microcontroller manufacturers first. "Do you want your dev boards supported by the Arduino Ecosystem? Pay us 10% of revenue, and then we'll talk."

They've taken money to add support for new chips before, from intel of all people.

Re: Arduino raises $22M Series B round

#104

Post by jandrese » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 3:25 PM UTC

FredPret wrote: post #30

lexicality wrote: post #3

Sounds to me like another nail in the coffin for Arduino as a useful tool for hobbyists. That said I stopped buying Arduinos years ago and started buying super low cost ESPs from China and I think most other people did too so I guess it's not going to be a huge blow

> super low cost ESPs from China Just checked aliexpress.com. You were not kidding - $1-2 per item!

Cheap boards aren't new, but cheap boards that have a sane development environment and decent documentation are far more novel.

Re: Arduino raises $22M Series B round

#105

Post by londons_explore » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 3:26 PM UTC

datpiff wrote: post #94

londons_explore wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I predict they'll go after microcontroller manufacturers first. "Do you want your dev boards supported by the Arduino Ecosystem? Pay us 10% of revenue, and then we'll talk."

I don't think this likely. In professional environments no one uses the Arduino IDE. Hobbyist projects don't move the needle in chip sales.

> In professional environments no one uses the Arduino IDE

I disagree. In companies with an embedded software team, no. But in companies where software isn't a focus of what the company does, there are plenty of bits of arduino code shipped on millions of devices. For example, my Beko branded fridge (they sell 3 million fridges per year). And my unbranded motion-sensitive security light.

Re: Arduino raises $22M Series B round

#106

Post by svnt » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 3:26 PM UTC

im_down_w_otp wrote: post #60

hotstickyballs wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> sold equity in the company. > diminishing the payout the founders would get if the company pays dividends or is sold That’s VC debt

It isn’t. Venture debt is a whole different thing. Disclosure: is founder who has raised money through both equity financing and debt financing.

Yeah, debt is better for the founder which is why investors want priced rounds.

Re: Arduino raises $22M Series B round

#107

Post by mbanzi » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 3:26 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #13

londons_explore wrote: post #7

Oh :-( Every time a cool little company gets VC funding, you know that the free and opensource projects will dry up, and before long they'll be making premium high end products and suing anyone who tries to compete.

I predict they'll go after microcontroller manufacturers first. "Do you want your dev boards supported by the Arduino Ecosystem? Pay us 10% of revenue, and then we'll talk."

Hi (co founder of Arduino here) We're not doing any of that. Our partnerships based on products and whatever processor is the most useful for what we're trying to build. We're mostly working on robust industrial products that maintain the ease of use of the Arduino framework and we sell those to enterprises. very simple

Re: Arduino raises $22M Series B round

#108

Post by primitivesuave » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 3:27 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #7

Oh :-( Every time a cool little company gets VC funding, you know that the free and opensource projects will dry up, and before long they'll be making premium high end products and suing anyone who tries to compete.

Honestly I feel like the people who made digital electronics accessible to 2nd graders deserve compensation. I used to organize and teach Arduino robotics classes, and had thousands of students over the years. A handful of those kids even went on to make science fair projects and portfolio projects with Arduino, which set them on a path to a career in engineering.

Even if they completely reverse their open-source approach, I’d still be grateful for the tremendous contribution Arduino has made to education.

By the way, the best way to support Arduino as an individual is to only buy official boards directly from their site.

Re: Arduino raises $22M Series B round

#109

Post by londons_explore » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 3:27 PM UTC

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #92

Brusco_RF wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now if we could just somehow fit "web3" or "as a service" in that sentence

Can my project be hosted on blockchain though?

Just invest 17 bitcoins into my wallet, and I shall transport your company to the virtual blockchain for you.

Re: Arduino raises $22M Series B round

#110

Post by mbanzi » Thu, Sep 07, 2023, 3:28 PM UTC

Dork1234 wrote: post #90

londons_explore wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people still program ESP32's with the arduino IDE. And there are a good number of devices on the shelves of stores today which contain the arduino bootloader. It turns out the "point and click and get a working IoT product" tends to outcompete hiring a professional embedded coder to spend months to make something bespoke from scratch. My dumb fridge for example runs on top of the arduino bootloader on an atm…

If it isn't Arduino, then it will be MicroPython/CiruitPython and you won't even need a compiler.

Arduino is supporting the official MicroPython project and has released ports for a number of boards in addition to tools like a simple MicroPython IDE and a GUI installer.