O’Reilly Alpha Tech, the corporate venturing unit of US-based media company O’Reilly Media, has helped LittleBits, a “Lego for electronics” business, raise $3.65m.
O’Reilly Alpha Tech was joined by venture firms Khosla Ventures, Lerer Ventures as well as angels Jeffrey Walker, Joi Ito, Joanne Wilson, and Salah Chamma in the series A.
The company gave a TED talk show-casing the technology in March.
Ayah Bdeir, the company’s founder, said: “Only days after we launched our first products, they started flying off the shelves, and demand has been growing at an overwhelming pace. PCH creates consumer and medical electronics, accessories, and packaging for some of the most coveted brands in the world, and manages to combine mass scale with world-class quality. With their help we will be able to increase and improve our production capabilities and get kids and adults around the world to get creative with electronics.”
Bdeir added: “In September of 2011, we raised a seed round led by Joi Ito (that included Nicholas Negroponte, Taha Mikati, Fadi Ghandour, Josh Spear, Jason Port, Joanne Wilson and Salah Chamma). That seed round allowed us to get off the ground, and to put our hunch -that the world was hungry for a new pipe cleaner and popsicle stick- to the test.”