An Illinois IoT startup was just acquired by Scotts Miracle-Gro to make your garden smarter.
On Monday, Scotts Miracle-Gro, the Marysville, Ohio-based marketer of branded consumer lawn and garden products, announced it acquired PlantLink, a startup that sells connected devices that monitor plant health, along with its parent company Oso Technologies.
PlantLink, which has offices in Urbana and Chicago, Ill., has a system of sensors and valves that measure soil moisture, then send a push notification to remind a gardener to water their plants. The system also allows a gardener to water plants using the PlantLink app, schedule watering, or set the smart valve to automatically water plants when needed. Sensors have a range up to 100 feet, over a year of battery life and are water resistant.
The startup raised $98,000 on Kickstarter in 2013 to get its product off the ground, and has raised $675,000 in funding, primarily from Serra Ventures, a Champaign-based venture capital firm. Previously PlantLink partnered with Scotts Miracle-Gro to support initiatives in improving water efficiency (Scotts Miracle-Gro pointed out that up to 50 percent of outdoor water use is wasted by inefficient watering) and growing the "connected yard" ecosystem.
With the acquisition, Scotts Miracle-Gro said it will be devoting resources to amp up PlantLink's product development, marketing and retail channel expansion, including selling PlantLink alongside other ScottsMiracle-Gro products in retail stores.
Scotts Miracle-Gro also announced it acquired Blossom, a startup creating smart water controllers. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.
“We have had a solid partnership with Blossom and PlantLink and look forward to taking these platforms to the next level,” said Peter Supron, chief of staff to the president of ScottsMiracle-Gro, in a release. “It is our goal to bring higher levels of awareness to lawn and garden smart IoT devices and help companies with these types of products grow. By leveraging technology, we can provide consumers with integrated solutions that can extend into many aspects of their lawns and gardens.”
