Amazon hopes to strengthen wi-fi coverage throughout homes by its investment Luma-- a new home “mesh” wi-fi system that bills itself as “improved broadband coverage at an affordable price.”
The Luma device is hexagon in shape and, while palm-sized, provides a high-five solution for deploying wi-fi. Reports say Amazon wants to integrate Echo's feature “Alexa” in this new device as a showpiece.
If the answer to better wi-fi coverage is mesh networking as used by large enterprises, then Luma is on the right path and deserves all its celebrity backing. Luma is backed by top venture capital firms such as Felicis Ventures, Base Ventures, BIP Capital, Relay Ventures, and Webb Investment Network.
Other investors include Vijay Balasubramaniyan (co-founder of Pindrop Security), Chad Byers (general partner at Susa Ventures), Adam Ghetti (founder of Ionic), Omar Johnson (CMO of Beats By Dre), Erik Norlander, Tom Noonan (co-founder of Internet Security Systems), Kirk Posmantur (CEO of Axcess), Hans Robertson (co-founder of Meraki), Jed York (CEO of the 49ers) and others.
“We squeezed mesh networking, content filtering, mobile device management and cybersecurity into a little good-looking device,” says co-founder Dr. Paul Judge. “Each device communicates with app via Bluetooth and helps you find the best place in your house to put it. The Lumas then all communicate wirelessly to build the ideal mesh network for your house. They communicate about traffic patterns and network interference then they automatically tune and reconfigure on the fly to optimize performance at all times.”
