Quirky was established in 2009 by Ben Kaufman. He was an exceptional entrepreneur and industrialist who has founded his very first company at the age of 18. Kaufman knew early on how difficult it would be for a businessman to bring a lone product in the market. When Kaufman launched Quirky, his intention was to break the virtual barrier to inventions and to bring together all the creative people around the world to invent together. Since day one, Quirky has helped hundreds of inventors in bringing their product ideas to life until a retailer willingly commits to sell the products. Today, Quirky still continues to help redefine the way people think about product development and invention.
In its startup stage, Quirky would appeal to the business world as an invention-crowdsourcing platform that would focus on the smart-gadget market. However, Kaufman realized, who would want to buy a lock or a garage door from a company called Quirky? The answer was quite challenging. So Quirky and GE agreed to a partnership that will develop an app that will control and monitor products wirelessly. The app was later known as “Wink.”
Not only did GE help Quirky cross the most critical stage of the startup’s life. GE actually infused $30 million in fresh investments. GE shared with Quirky its vision to connect homes in a simple way - without necessarily intimidating customers. The first five gadgets off the partnership has hit the market in a very tremendous way.
After a series of fund raising campaigns in 2010, Quirky was able to collect $6 million in Series A funding in April 2010. The investors were led by RRE Ventures. A second round of fund raising activities was held in August 2011 where Quirky collected $16 million in Series B funding from investors like Norwest Venture Partners. The Series C round was conducted in September 2012 where $68 million in Series C funds were contributed by venture capital companies such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Andreessen Horowitz.