We were impressed enough with Tile’s unique take on the Bluetooth-enabled tracking device to realize that its little gizmo was going to take off like a Saturn V rocket.
Indeed, Tile has now become the most successful Selfstarter campaign by blowing past Lockitron, who created the open-source crowdfunding alternative after their smartphone-connected door lock was rejected by Kickstarter.
Tile, for those of you who live in a cave, is a $25 Bluetooth-enabled chip that attaches to a possession (like a keychain or wallet) and is locatable on Tile’s accompanying iPhone app. What makes Tile different from almost every other similar device out there is that Tile’s users are all connected through the cloud, creating a giant search net that negates the disadvantage of Bluetooth’s extremely short range.
While Tile’s $2.6 million is still dwarfed by Kickstarter’s most successful campaign — that of the Pebble smartwatch, which scooped up more than $10 million in Kickstarter funds — the little wafer’s stunning fundraising coup could signal the sudden rise of the Selfstarter platform.
Source: Tile
