Swarm debuts $499 Evaluation Kit for consumers and tinkerers – TechCrunch

Satellite connectivity company Swarm has released a new product that allows anyone to create a messaging or Internet of Things (IoT) device, whether it’s a hiker looking to stay connected off the web or a hobbyist who wants to keep track of the weather.

The Swarm Evaluation Kit is an all-in-one product that includes a Swarm Tile, the company’s flagship modem device, VHF antenna, small solar panel, tripod, Feather S2 development board, and an Adafruit OLED. The entire kit costs less than six pounds and costs $ 499. The package might sound intimidatingly technical, but Sara Spangelo, CEO of Swarm, told TechCrunch that it was designed to be easy to use, from novice to advanced users.

“It was very intentional to call it an evaluation kit because it is not a finished product,” explained Spangelo. “It serves two different types of groups. The first group is people who want to send messages anywhere in the world at a really low cost […] The second group of people will be the tinkerers and the hobbyists and the educators. “

Swarm CEO and Co-Founder Sara Spangelo Credit: swarm

This is the second consumer product Swarm has on offer after going commercially live with its flagship Swarm Tile earlier this year. The Swarm Tile is a key component of the company’s ecosystem, which is made up of a few different components: the Tile, a type of modem that can be embedded in various things and to which the customer is connected; the satellite network; and a ground station network that the company uses to downlink data. The Tile was developed for maximum compatibility so that Swarm serves customers from all sectors such as shipping, logistics and agriculture.

“One of the cool things about Swarm is that we’re infrastructure,” she said. “We’re like cell towers, so anyone can use us in any industry.” Some of the use cases she highlighted were customers using Tile in soil moisture sensors or asset tracking in the trucking industry.

A key part of Swarm’s business model is its low cost, with a Swarm tile costing $ 119 and the connectivity service available for just $ 5 per month per device connected. Spangelo not only praises the technical innovations in the tiny devices and satellites, but also the advantages in the startup economy, especially for developers of small satellites like Swarm. The company also sells direct, which further reduces overhead costs.

Swarm was founded by Spangelo, a PhD pilot and aerospace engineer who spent time at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Google on its Wing drone project. She told TechCrunch that Swarm started out as a hobby project between her and her co-founder, Ben Longmier, who had previously started a company called Aether Industries that made high-altitude balloon platforms.

“Then [we] realized that we can communicate at a similar speed as previous players, ”said Sara Spangelo. “The connectivity got a lot of buzz,” she added, noting that initiatives like Project Loon made a lot of money. But instead of trying to reach the size and scope of some of these multi-year projects, they decided to go small.

In the four and a half years since the company was founded, Swarm has put a network of 120 sandwich-size satellites into low-earth orbit, increasing its workforce to 32 people. They were also busy engaging customers using the Tile. One hope is that the kit will provide an additional opportunity to attract customers to Swarm’s service.

Spangelo said the jersey is for “everyone in between who just likes to play with things. And it’s not just playing – playing leads to innovations and ideas, and then it’s carried out into the world. “