reMarkable sells 1M units, closes funding at $1B valuation

{Hardware}, because the saying goes, is tough; however there stays a possibility for startups that target particular niches to construct viable companies. Within the newest instance, reMarkable, the Oslo, Norway-based maker of a simple and slick $299 e-paper tablet of the identical identify, says that it has handed 1 million units offered since 2017 and not too long ago raised cash at a $1 billion valuation after making revenues of $300 million and working income of $31 million in 2021.

Founder and CEO Magnus Wanberg stated reMarkable isn’t disclosing the quantity of the funding, nor who was concerned, besides to say that it’s a minority stake within the firm and that it got here from a number of worldwide (not Norwegian) buyers. The corporate employs 300+ folks and Wanberg says it’s nonetheless “majority worker owned.”

“Nothing’s fishy however we’re retaining it confidential,” he stated once I requested why the reticence on the funding. He famous that whereas the deal was made final yr, the startup is disclosing it now as “a great indication, a sign out to the world” of how the corporate is doing. “That is simply sprinkles for us,” he stated greater than as soon as throughout our interview.

Spark, which led a $15 million investment into the company in 2019 (when it had offered a mere 100,000 units), stays a shareholder within the firm, Wanberg added. And it appears that evidently the startup is open to elevating extra to put money into development (maybe another excuse for talking about its newest funding now).

reMarkable’s development and milestone funding are exceptional (sorry needed to do it) in themselves, however what can also be attention-grabbing is to think about why and the way an organization like reMarkable is discovering traction.

Numerous customers positively don’t appear to thoughts being very online, however there may be positively a seam of customers in search of methods to make use of new know-how that doesn’t on the identical time spell being locked into the litany of pings and distractions that include a lot related know-how right this moment. And more and more we’re seeing corporations constructing for that seam of customers. reMarkable is one among them. Wanberg believes that this firm’s success up to now is due largely to the main target it has on “focus.”

“The way forward for the pill as we see it’s within the path that Apple and others are heading, a fusion of laptop computer and pill varieties,” which enhances how folks additionally use smartphones, he stated in an interview. “However our providing is a 3rd gadget, a focussed area for books, drawing and notes, the place you may actually keep away from distractions and procrastination. That’s our positioning.”

Even its small concessions to aesthetics — the sound and really feel of reMarkable’s pen on its display screen are extra akin to a writing utensil shifting throughout paper than a stylus gliding on the glass of your iPad — really feel in assist of making an attempt to assist folks neglect they’re utilizing a chunk of electronics.

The corporate’s enterprise mannequin was initially banked round promoting {hardware}, which right this moment is utilized by “tons of of 1000’s” of energetic customers. The company’s reMarkable 2 model, launched in 2020 because the COVID-19 outbreak went world, actually rode the wave of extra folks doing extra issues at dwelling and looking for extra nuanced makes use of for his or her quiet time.

However in October of final yr reMarkable made a guess on aligning itself nearer with that concept of focus, launching a subscription service called Connect.

Whereas others like Apple have additionally constructed out recurring companies companies based mostly round its {hardware}, this was an particularly essential milestone for reMarkable, which has solely launched two units since being based in 2013 and touts that you don’t want to purchase a brand new gadget for no less than 10 years once you purchase one.

Billed month-to-month in two tiers (regular at $7.99/month and “lite” at $4.99/month), Join is how the startup plans to make a considerable a part of its cash going ahead (certainly, once I requested it declined to present any projections for gadget gross sales for 2022). Amongst its options, Join offers steady software program updates; cloud storage; connectivity with Dropbox, Google Drive and One Drive if you’d like it; an prolonged guarantee for the pill; handwriting conversion; display screen sharing and a characteristic to ship by electronic mail — in different phrases, a couple of options to get data into and out of your reMarkable pill, however in any other case nothing particularly real-time and dynamic.

On this approach, although it calls itself a pill, the reMarkable is extra like an e-reader, Wanberg stated.

“With an E-reader and also you personal and use it for fairly a very long time,” he defined. “In our enterprise, it’s not a new-model-every-year dynamic. There is no such thing as a emphasis on new mannequin possession. We don’t need to drive our firm to slap on some iteration for the sake of it. There may be true innovation, main steps when it comes to what we will supply the shopper. We additionally assume it’s nice from a sustainability perspective [to move away from] pushing out new {hardware}.”

Wanberg didn’t disclose what number of have adopted Join to this point, solely noting that to this point it has had a “nice response” as reMarkable “tries to show to clients that we will serve them on a working foundation.” Provided that Join solely launched in October of final yr, it could be too early to inform. Its $31 million working revenue in 2021 was greater than triple its revenue in 2020 ($10 million), however reMarkable famous that this was “pushed largely by gross sales of its newest paper pill.”