Golioth, the cloud platform for hardware developers, announced a $2.5M seed round in conjunction with a private beta launch for developers.

Golioth is a platform that allows device makers to deliver on the promise of cloud connected IoT. It enables hardware developers to build end-to-end IoT-connected products using their choice of hardware and connectivity, all without the need for a team of cloud engineers. From device messaging to security, updates, analytics, and more, the platform provides device services that work with every developer's hardware and firmware requirements.

Adoption of both consumer and industrial IoT has been accelerating and is anticipated to grow exponentially over the next 10 years with 30.9B devices expected to come online by 2030. One of the largest challenges facing hardware companies when it comes to connecting that number of devices is the lack of sufficient software, security, and cloud engineering expertise.

Founder Jonathan Beri, former Product Manager at Nest, Google, and early product leader at Particle, created Golioth to simplify the cloud for IoT/Hardware developers. He tapped Vit Prajzler, a pioneer in the IoT industry, as Golioth's CTO. Prajzler was on the original team at IBM Research which developed the LoRaWAN protocol and was the Founder & former CTO of Loriot, a SaaS provider of carrier-grade LoRaWAN networks.

"Current IoT platforms were designed for software companies who deeply understand cloud computing, databases, and networking, not for the engineers who build devices," explained Beri. "I realized if a platform could address what hardware needs from the cloud it could significantly reduce the cost and complexity for hardware makers as the number of connected devices grows exponentially. Being laser focused on empowering hardware developers is how Golioth will grow adoption within any product company, from startups to Fortune 500 companies."

How it works

Unlike other platforms, Golioth provides turnkey IoT cloud services with unmatched levels of choice in what matters most to hardware developers: flexibility in hardware, embedded software, messaging protocols, and connectivity. Golioth supports a range of open IoT protocols and connectivity for communication, providing security by default.

Golioth's first Device SDK is built on The Zephyr Project, an open source project under the Linux Foundation that offers a safe, secure, and flexible RTOS for the IoT in space-constrained devices. Golioth's Zephyr SDK takes full advantage of the capabilities of Zephyr such as a modern, secure networking stack and protocol support. As of today, Golioth is also announcing that it has joined The Zephyr Project as a Silver Member.

"The Internet of Things is a common use case for Zephyr and is paired well with a device management platform like Golioth," said Kate Stewart, Vice President of Dependable Embedded Systems at The Linux Foundation. "With security and trust on top of every manufacturer's mind, it is ever more important for platforms to make security a fundamental feature, which requires integrations at the both the OS and cloud level as Golioth has done."

During the private beta, Golioth Cloud will be free for beta testers. Pricing and additional deployment options will be announced later this year. Developers interested in participating in the private beta can request to join here.

Golioth's recent round of funding, led by Zetta Venture Partners, will go toward growth and the expansion of a developer community around Golioth. "We heard loud and clear from device makers that they want to spend time and energy on what they do best: hardware design and development," says Jocelyn Goldfein, Managing Director at Zetta Venture Partners. "Edge devices have similar needs - every product shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel. That's why we're delighted to back Golioth in building the default cloud platform as a service for hardware developers."

Additional investors in Golioth include Chris Aniszczyk (CTO of CNCF), Sam Ramji (CSO of Datastax), Shiva Rajaraman (Former CTO WeWork,) and Stephen Blum (CTO of PubNub.)