Parisian-based startup PKparis has just raised €1M to launch a new variety of connected products and develop its activity internationally.
Most of this investment comes from 40 private investors who provided €700,000 in total through SmartAngels -a French crowdfunding equity website, and Bpifrance -France’s public investment bank, who lent €300,000 to the hardware company.
The startup founded in 2013 by Luc Pierart -former Business and Marketing director at LaCie, is well known for the K1, its 128Go 5mm flash-drive, or the K’Save, a 3-in-one device for smartphones, providing 128Go of additional memory, an external battery, and a charger. PKparis products are available at various retailers including La Fnac, Amazon or world-famous concept store Colette.
This fundraising will allow the company to invest more in Research & Development, in order to develop a new “Home&People” product range, based on five patents including a health-oriented smartwatch, a connected tag to keep track of your items, and a pair of wireless earbuds capable of measuring its owner’s heart rate.
PKparis plans to recruit new collaborators this year and to open offices in Asia and America by 2017, just in time to launch their new products.