Former AllThingsD team-run Re/Code published a report about smart home gadget startup Nest's recent fundraising round as one of its first reports. According to the report, the startup was in the middle of raising a massive funding round that values in the vicinity of $150 million and $200 million. This range, said sources who told the digital news site, will put the valuation of the smart home gadget startup at around $2 billion and $3 billion.
Although investors are intent to participate in the new round of funding for Nest like existing investors Google Ventures and Shasta Ventures, sources disclosed to Re/Code that the DST Global investment firm, which is run by Yuri Milner, will be leading the funding round.
Nest was founded by former Apple executive and early iPod developer Tony Fadell. The startup, said a VentureBeat report, launched a smart learning thermostat back in 2011, which elicited buzz from technology experts due to the product's one-of-a-kind designs, mobile connectivity, and smart capabilities, such as learning one's habits to manage room temperature settings.
Recently, Nest launched a few months ago a smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector. The detector seemed to have indicated the startup's goal of improving one's home by equipping smarter appliances, and is focused on reinventing boring product categories, Venturebeat said in its report.
Nest's director of product marketing Maxime Veron said in a recent interview with VentureBeat, "We reinvent essential things, not superfluous things ... Things that are important to have in your home. We're in the mindset of looking at unloved products ... We have a list of products that aren't right and we want to change."
An earlier report by the technology news site said Nest raised a reported $80 million in investment funding a year ago, easily raising the startup's valuation then to over $800 million. Nest is based out of Palo Alto, California.
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