Today, 3D Robotics – the leading North American drone company across both consumer and enterprise channels, announces its acquisition of Sifteo, a cutting-edge consumer electronics company.
Sifteo’s team of consumer electronics industry veterans (UX designers, engineers, manufacturing experts, retail operations, etc.) bring expertise in building high-quality, high-tech consumer products in large volumes and getting them into mass retailers. Sifteo’s engineering team has developed a set of core technologies for high-performance embedded computation, low-latency wireless communication, virtualization techniques, and sensor fusion, which can be applied to various products.
The focus of the newly combined entities post-acquisition is on expanding from 3D Robotics’ current market leadership position in the B2B and sophisticated developer and hobby drone sectors, to establishing similar market leadership in more out-of-the-box products for the everyday consumer, a vast and still emerging market segment.
Chris Anderson, CEO of 3D Robotics (and former Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine and bestselling author of The Long Tail) commented “When we first engaged with the Sifteo team, and saw their skillset, experience, and IP portfolio, we immediately recognized the impact they would have working with us to transform and grow the consumer drone market. Their consumer electronics experience and deep product skills complement our technology perfectly. We are thrilled to have the resources of both groups together to lead what we believe will be a billion dollar market over the next few years.”
Sifteo, previously supported by multiple research grants from the National Science Foundation and venture financing from True Ventures and Foundry Group, will leave their customer support open for at least a full year for existing Sifteo customers.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
