Helium pumps $20m into smart environmental monitoring sensor
The Helium Green sensor when coupled with the Helium Pulse monitoring and alerting solution, which has also been introduced at the same time, is able to measure temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, light and motion, offering what the company claims is the smartest configurable environmental sensor in the IoT market.
With Helium Green, companies can capture rich data about their environment and create business insights with powerful Helium scripting at the edge and in the cloud.
The recent financing round was led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), with participation from Khosla Ventures, FirstMark, and Munich RE/Hartford Steam Boiler Ventures. GV general partner Andy Wheeler will also join Helium’s board.
“We see significant market potential for IoT in the commercial and industrial world, monitoring things like freezers for cold chain compliance, heavy equipment for preventative maintenance, and air quality inside factories,” said Wheeler. “The Helium team has solved many of the issues that have tripped up previous industry attempts at building an IoT platform. The Helium platform has impressive technical architecture, and is easy to manage from both the edge and the cloud.”
“At Helium, we are constantly expanding the types of smart sensors that enterprises and industry can use to make sense of their things,” said Rob Chandhok, president and chief operating officer, Helium. “We developed the Helium Green smart sensor based on feedback and input from production deployments with various restaurants, hospitals and smart building management companies to provide the most flexible and powerful environmental monitoring solution.”
As with every Helium smart sensor, the battery-powered Helium Green smart sensors connect wirelessly and securely with zero configuration required. Helium Green adds the capability to monitor five core characteristics of any environment in a single package:
| Temperature: | Measures in the range of -20°C to +60°C |
| Humidity: | Measures 0 to 100 percent RH |
| Barometric Pressure: | Measures 300 to 1100 hPa |
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Light :
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Relative light brightness by default, ranging from 0 to 100 percent. More sophisticated sensing can be programmed over-the-air for special applications. |
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PIR Motion Sensor:
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Detects motion at a distance of up to 5m, with horizontal and vertical detection ranges of 94° x 82°, and includes 64 detection zones. |
One example use of Helium Green is to monitor occupancy of a conference room by sensing motion in order to manage energy costs, comfort and utilization. Helium smart sensors are deployed simply by pulling the smart sensor battery tab and placing them on a ceiling or other surface.
Once deployed, Helium Green smart sensors fit seamlessly into any Helium deployment to easily add new ways to sense existing things. The smart sensors combine data intelligently to make monitoring both sophisticated and simple. All the edge components of Helium, including smart sensors, can be easily upgraded over the air and are completely secure. Most smart sensor deployments will see up to three years of battery life from two standard AA batteries, as the Helium platform optimizes how often sensors send and receive data for the best battery life possible.
Helium has previously raised $16 million in 2014 from Khosla Ventures, with participation from FirstMark Capital, Digital Garage, Marc Benioff, SV Angel, and Slow Ventures.
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