Industry Veteran Jeremy Jaech Lands $1.5 Million from Madrona Venture Group and Radar Partners for Innovative Low Power Sensor Technology; Founds SNUPI Technologies

SEATTLE, Dec. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SNUPI Technologies, a new company that takes advantage of the wiring already in homes to create a wireless sensor network, launched today with $1.5 million in funding from Madrona Venture Group, Radar Partners and the founders.  The technology, also called SNUPI (Sensor Network Utilizing Powerline Infrastructure), was developed at the University of Washington and Georgia Institute of Technology by Professors Shwetak Patel and Matt Reynolds and others.

Co-founded by Jaech, Patel, Reynolds and UW graduate student Gabe Cohn, the company will use the financing to build the team, and to design and build the hardware and software implementations.  SNUPI Technologies is based in Seattle.

"SNUPI is an incredibly innovative technology that promises to provide low cost and reliable sensing technology that everyday people can take advantage of," said Jeremy Jaech, CEO. "As our day-to-day lives become increasingly measured and recorded, SNUPI will make people's lives better by providing insight into what is happening in their home and alerting them to potential hazards.  I'm very excited to work with Dr. Patel and Dr. Reynolds to bring this technology to market."

"Madrona Venture Group has a long track record of supporting the commercialization of the remarkable technology that comes out of the University of Washington," said Tom Alberg, Managing Partner, Madrona Venture Group.  "This team combines Jeremy's business acumen with technological brilliance from highly esteemed professors and institutions.  SNUPI is positioned for growth in this emerging market of advanced sensor technology."  This investment marks the 11th company Madrona has funded that is based on technology developed in the University of Washington's Computer Science and Engineering department.  Previous investments have included Farecast (acquired by Microsoft), AdRelevance, and Skytap.

Co-founders and Professors Shwetak Patel from the University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering department and Matt Reynolds from Duke University's department of Electrical and Computer Engineering first developed the technology through collaboration with Professor Gregory Abowd's research group at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  The technology was further developed at the University of Washington.

Jeremy Jaech is a successful, longtime entrepreneur, deeply committed to bringing life and work changing technology to the masses.  As a co-founder of Aldus, which invented desktop publishing through its PageMaker software, and of Visio which enabled everyone from engineers to business managers to plan work visually, he changed how industries operate and work gets done.  Since the acquisition of Visio by Microsoft, Jeremy has led several companies including Verdiem and Trumba and has served as the Chair of the Tech Alliance.  Jaech was appointed to the University of Washington Board of Regents by Washington Governor, Christine Gregoire, in the fall of 2012. 

Dr. Patel previously co-founded Zensi, Inc., an energy and water monitoring company that was acquired by Belkin, Inc. in 2010. Dr. Patel received a MacArthur Fellowship "the genius grant" in 2011, was a 2012 Sloan Fellow, and is widely seen as one of the most promising thinkers and inventors in this arena.

The company's CTO is Matt Reynolds from Duke University's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Reynolds previously co-founded ThingMagic, Inc., an RFID systems firm, acquired by Trimble, and also co-founded Zensi, Inc. with Dr. Patel.  He holds 10 patents and 20 pending patents.

Gabe Cohn, Ph.D. student in the UW Electrical Engineering department where he is advised by Professor Patel is the recipient of many awards including the Madrona Venture Group Top Research Prize in 2011 and a Microsoft Research Ph.D. Fellowship. His Ph.D. thesis is partly the basis of the SNUPI technology.

About SNUPI Technologies

SNUPI is bringing to market reliable, low power wireless sensing technology that uses the extant wiring in homes for communication and a web service for notification.  Led by Jeremy Jaech and based on technology developed at the University of Washington, the company is based in Seattle, WA.  www.snupitec.com

About Madrona Venture Group

Madrona Venture Group (www.madrona.com) has been investing in early-stage technology companies in the Pacific Northwest since 1995 and has been privileged to play a role in some of the region's most successful technology ventures. The firm invests across the information technology spectrum, including consumer Internet, commercial software and services, digital media and advertising, networking and infrastructure, and wireless. Madrona currently manages nearly $1 billion and was an early investor in companies such as Amazon.com, Isilon Systems, World Wide Packets, iConclude, Farecast.com and ShareBuilder.    

For more information, contact:
Erika Shaffer
206-972-5514
[email protected]

SOURCE Madrona Venture Group

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