Esper Raises $30M Series B to Revolutionize IoT DevOps

Esper Secures $30 Million Series B Funding to Enhance IoT Device Management

Despite the proliferation of billions of IoT devices currently in operation, the tools available for developing – and crucially, updating – their software remain inadequate. Esper, a company dedicated to resolving this issue, has recently announced a successful $30 million Series B funding round.

Addressing the Challenges of Android-Based Edge Device Fleets

This funding round was spearheaded by Scale Venture Partners, with significant participation from Madrona Venture Group, Root Ventures, Ubiquity Ventures, and Haystack. Esper focuses on providing developers and engineers with the necessary tools to efficiently deploy and manage large numbers of Android-based edge devices.

The company highlights that numerous device manufacturers are utilizing Android for their devices, yet scaling and maintaining these deployments presents considerable difficulties. Esper’s core offering aims to bring a familiar DevOps experience to device development, mirroring the expectations of modern software developers.

Esper's Solution: A DevOps Approach to IoT

By leveraging Esper’s tools, companies can potentially avoid the expense and complexity of establishing their own internal DevOps teams. Instead, they can utilize Esper’s platform to effectively scale their Android-based IoT fleets across diverse applications, including digital signage, kiosks, and specialized solutions in sectors like healthcare, retail, and logistics.

Yadhu Gopalan, CEO and co-founder of Esper, alongside COO Shiv Sundar, emphasized the impact of recent global events. “The pandemic has fundamentally reshaped industries such as connected fitness, digital health, hospitality, and food delivery, accelerating the adoption of intelligent edge devices,” Gopalan stated. “This acceleration necessitates improved software automation.”

He further explained that Esper’s robust cloud infrastructure is designed to provide the functionality cloud developers have come to rely on, specifically adapted for device management.

Image Credits: Esper

Differentiating from Traditional Mobile Device Management (MDM)

While Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions exist, the Esper team contends that they weren’t originally designed for the unique demands of IoT deployments.

“Existing MDMs are geared towards devices entering a controlled environment,” Gopalan clarified. “Their core purpose is enterprise security and application deployment within a network. Our clients, however, are deploying devices into unpredictable environments. This represents a fundamentally different use case and operational model.”

A Comprehensive Toolkit for IoT Development

To overcome these challenges, Esper provides a comprehensive suite of tools and services. This includes a complete development stack for developers, cloud-based services for streamlined device management, and hardware emulators to facilitate the creation of custom devices.

Inspire Fitness founder, Chris Merli, shared a positive experience: “Esper enabled us to launch our Fusion-connected fitness offering on three distinct hardware platforms in under six months.” He added, “Their Android platform for connected fitness allowed us to test our application across various hardware, configure devices remotely, and manage our fleet precisely to our specifications, delivering speed, Android expertise, and a reliable customer experience.”

Esper also offers solutions for repurposing older x86 Windows devices by running Android on them, effectively extending their useful lifespan.

Reliability and Future Partnerships

Gopalan highlighted the significant investment in infrastructure: “We dedicated approximately a year and a half to building out our infrastructure. Ensuring a dependable and robust system where software updates reach devices reliably, with rollback capabilities when needed, was paramount.”

Esper is actively collaborating with hardware manufacturers to integrate Esper support directly into new devices at the point of manufacture.

Impressive Growth Metrics

Esper reports a substantial 70x increase in revenue over the past year, accompanied by an 8x growth in paying customers and a 15x expansion in the number of devices managed by their platform. While the initial figures remain undisclosed, investors clearly recognize the potential of Esper’s approach.

Current clients include prominent organizations such as CloudKitchens, Spire Health, Intelity, Ordermark, Inspire Fitness, RomTech and Uber.