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Blossom
Fact Sheet
Company Profile
With headquarters in Irvine, California, the team behind Blossom, a smart watering
controller that conserves water and significantly reduces water utility bills, knows a thing
or two about the need for water conservation. With backing from companies including
Vizio and Accton, Blossom’s founders have leveraged their experience in consumer
electronics, water resources, manufacturing, cloud computing, networking and hardware
to bring a product to market that can make a difference and have an impact across
multiple sectors.
The Blossom team has the experience to build a reliable product that scales in the cloud
and is cost-effective.
The Smart Home
The Importance of
Water
Conservation
The Smart Home concept is growing in popularity: 31 million smart home systems are
expected to be installed by 2017. Home automation via the Internet of Things brings
numerous benefits – and smartphones and tablets are market drivers. According to
Parks Associates: 52 percent of mobile consumers over 18 in North America now have
smart phones and over 24 million people own tablets – and 77 percent of consumers
surveyed would like the ability to remotely control and monitor their home while away.
Water usage in the United States is
rising every year, and the pressure is on
all across the country to conserve water.
Almost every region has experienced a
water shortage in recent years –
according to the EPA, 40 out of 50 state
water managers expect water shortages
under average conditions in some
portion of their states over the next
decade.
Much of water use can be attributed to residential irrigation, and up to 50 percent of the
water used for irrigation is wasted. Most residential irrigation systems rely on
conventional watering controllers that don’t take actual water needs, based on vegetation
or rainfall numbers, into account.
The Blossom
System
Leveraging the power of cloud computing, Blossom
self-programs existing sprinklers based on local forecast
and daily data from thousands of weather stations and
satellites, combined with user feedback, to create an
optimized watering schedule. Users control Blossom from
their smart phone, tablet or computer.
Blossom is designed to be different. It addresses
connectivity challenges by using Powerline, which makes
the installation process simple and provides a highly
reliable connection. With Powerline technology, Blossom
turns electrical outlets into Internet connections – making its range essentially limitless
for the home. It goes where others can’t. Blossom is the only sprinkler controller that is
built to be deployed indoors or outdoors. It is IP54 rated, making it the only out of the box
option in the market for users that have controllers deployed outdoors. For users that
may prefer a Wi-Fi solution, Blossom also provides this as an alternative.
With apps for iOS and Android, Blossom gives users control of their yard, no matter
where they are. Blossom works with a user’s current system’s wires, valves and
sprinklers – it’s an easy retrofit, not a rip and replace, and installs in less than 15
minutes.
Blossom helps users keep money in their pockets in the form of lower water bills, and is
priced about the same as conventional outdoor 12-station sprinkler systems.
Leadership
Manrique Brenes, Founder
Kaido Kert, CTO
Matthew McRae, Chairman
With a background in consumer electronics at companies including Skype and Cisco –
as well as ten years spent in the water irrigation industry – Brenes was joined in founding
Blossom by longtime friends and colleagues McRae and Kert. Currently Vizio’s CTO and
head of marketing, McRae has more than 15 years of experience and has previously
worked for Cisco Systems and Linksys. Kert worked in software development at Skype,
and has years of experience in embedded systems and large-scale consumer electronics
manufacturing. Together, the Blossom team has over 75 prior patent filings between
them.
Kickstarter
Campaign
The last batch of units to backers – and all new orders – are already shipping in this first
week of April 2015. Blossom’s Kickstarter campaign closed at more than triple its initial
funding goal of $30,000 in December 2014, finishing at $102,600 with 847 backers.
How to Buy
Consumers can purchase a Blossom on the company’s website or on Amazon.com.
Priced at $199, Blossom can pay for itself in water cost savings in less than one year.
Blossom – and all of its built-in intelligence – is comparably priced to a conventional
outdoor 12-station sprinkler controller. Once installed, it can shave up to 30 percent off of
future water bills. Visit www.myblossom.com for all of the details.
Headquarters
34 Tesla
Irvine, CA 92618
Website
www.myblossom.com
Social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blossom.watering
Twitter: https://twitter.com/getblossom
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/getblossom
Instagram: http://instagram.com/getblossom
Google+: plus.google.com/+myblossomwater
Press Documents
& Images
For your convenience – press documents, product images and app screenshots are
available via Dropbox (A Dropbox account is not necessary to view/download files):
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xgms7nl4bay1mvs/AAArdls9SM00A6OV1_t1Y5ba?dl=0
Media Contact
Justine Mrsich
Lages & Associates
949-453-8080
justine@lages.com