Future Home is a Norwegian start-up initiative that utilises smart technology to allow users to control, automate and monitor hundreds of smart devices remotely through a single Smart Hub gateway, which is managed via a simple, user-friendly app.
The company’s three founding members – CEO Erik Stokkeland, Frontend Developer Bjarne Handeland and Development Manager Odd Eivind Evensen – first came up with the idea while studying together at the University of Stavanger in Southern Norway, and after a successful showcase at a technology expo, decided to develop their hobby into a full-time commercial business venture.
As part of our commitment to supporting innovative hardware start-ups, Premier Farnell approached Future Home at an early stage of their development, offering a full package of services and a cost effective, specially tailored single-source approach that mitigated the need for Future Home to seek multiple partners to cover individual requirements, such as compliance, manufacturing and engineering services. In addition to helping them to make their financial resources go further, this one-stop approach freed them up to focus purely on product and business development.
“For a new start up business, it’s very importance to have trust and confidence in your partners”, explains development manager Odd Eivind Evensen. “We spoke to several firms about design and manufacturing support in the early days of Future Home, but we were never particularly happy – either with the quotes or with the gut feeling we got from talking to them.”
“When Premier Farnell approached us, we were very impressed by what they were able to offer us, and we were aware of their reputation in the industry, including their background in working with start-up companies like ours. There are so many costly pitfalls when you're new to product manufacturing. Working with an experienced and serious partner through the development, testing and manufacturing of our first large scale product has given us assurances and confidence we would never attain alone.”
Premier Farnell’s subsidiary companies Avid Technologies and Embest Technology were responsible for all areas of product development for Future Home including:
- Schematic
- Layout
- Prototyping
- Compliance testing and Certification (CE initially)
- Electronic Manufacturing (PCBA)
- Mechanical enclosure
- Consumer Packaging
With the end-to-end support of Premier Farnell, Future Home have already been able to launch their Smart Home technology to great success in Norway, securing a 10 million NOK (approx: £900,000) investment from IKM invest and doubling their employee head count from six to twelve full time members of staff in 2015, with further growth in the first half of 2016.
Looking to the future, the company is continuing to refine and develop their product range while preparing to take Future Home onto the global market, with releases planned in wider Scandinavia, Germany and the UK within the next 12 months. Here at Premier Farnell we look forward to supporting them every step of the way...
To find out how Premier Farnell could support your start-up initiative, get in touch with us at startups@element14.com
Our full interview with Futurehome Development Manager Odd Eivind Evensen will be published soon.
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