Arduino sets its sights on enterprise applications with new funding round – TechCrunch

Best known for its open source microcontrollers that have been wildly embraced by the developer community, Arduino now has its sights firmly set on the enterprise world. Specifically, the company believes it’s well positioned to gain a foothold among Gen Z and millennial engineers in the work force. Certainly the company’s ubiquity in the maker world over the last decade or so means most everyone in the category is, at very least, familiar with the tech.

“Engineers in [Gen Z and millennial] generations grew up using Arduino boards in STEM programs around the world,” co-founder and CEO Massimo Banzi said in a release “and they’ve become accustomed to the accessibility, simplicity and power of the company’s open source hardware, software and cloud services. They’re now taking those demands into the enterprise as they enter the labor force.”

Propelling this push is $32 million in fresh Series B funding from Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Renesas, Anzu Partners and Arm. The move to enterprise is a bit of a strange one, given the company’s existing track record with hobbyists and education, but there’s certainly a lot of money to be made on the enterprise category, and over the years, I’ve increasingly seen the company’s off-the-shelf boards being integrated into workplace solutions, so it might not be the most unprecedented path for the company moving forward.

“Arduino has a unique opportunity to expand their already robust engineering community to encapsulate the enterprise market,” Renesas SVP Chris Allexandre said in the release. “We are delighted to support them in their plans of broadening their customer base and becoming a disruptive enterprise platform.”