# Emberlight Turn any light into a smart light. - Canonical URL: https://wefunder.com/emberlight - Entity ID: wefunder:company:8705 - Last updated: 2026-06-22T05:02:50Z - Generated at: 2026-06-22T06:21:22Z ## Quick facts - Launched on Amazon and Target. - Rolling out with several other retailers in 2016 and 2017 - Partnership with IFTTT - Global demand for lighting is increasing 16% every year. - Home light automation typically costs $25k - $250k. ## Active fundraises - wefunder:fundraise:5224: 506(b) successful (USD) - wefunder:fundraise:5187: 506(b) successful (USD) ## FAQ 1. **Will you expand into commercial lighting?** - Hi Will - We already have significant inbound interest in the hospitality sector for the emberlight socket, specifically from hotels. We're planning to send out samples in the next 2 months for several pilots. On the OEM side, we are getting requests to put our platform in products for certain commercial applications where our technology stack makes sense. 2 of the OEMs that we are sampling with are in the commercial sector. 2. **What are the challenges in selling licenses to OEMs? What does it take for a, e.g. IKEA, to partner with you guys?** - Hi Greg - It can vary depending on the type/size of the OEM. Generally speaking, some of the challenges include finding the right contact, customer education, and pricing model. We've got several experienced B2B folks on our team including myself, so we feel very comfortable operating in this space. We've been utilizing our strategic partnership with Flextronics to gain inroads with their large OEM customers that are interested in getting into the space. It then takes an amazing product exper... 3. **Cool concept. Is there a plan to develop a "weather proof" version so that it may be utilized outdoors on porch or driveway lanterns? Would emberlight be compatible with the Nuimo device from senic? If so, is there any interest in collaborating in a marketing campaign?** - Hi Dilraj - Thanks. The current product will be certified for outdoor use in damp environments. In other words, within an enclosure and not in direct contact with the weather. For full weatherproofing in other form factors (e.g. driveway lanterns), our strategy is to team up with the manufacturers that already make those, and provide the connectivity, intelligence and UX. The guys at Senic are friends of ours. We've been working with their team on integrating our products for some time now, a... 4. **What do you think of plum light and their light pad? Would you consider them a direct competitor? How are you better suited to capture more marketshare?** - A connected light switch is an elegant solution once installed. However, the biggest drawback is the high friction for adoption due to the required high voltage installation. From our survey of customers, 75% of people were not comfortable doing that type of install themselves. Home automation already suffers from the complexity of install and setup, and that just adds another barrier. We feel that switches are best channelled through home builders, renovators, property owners, etc. which is ... 5. **What happens if the consumer's WiFi is down, does the Emberlight socket also work in the traditional sense?** - Hi Kristy - When the user is within bluetooth range, we automatically detect that and fall forward to local control which is more responsive and not dependent on WiFi. So, if the WiFi was out, the user would still be able to control emberlights locally with the app in the same manner. ## Team - Atif Noori (CEO) - Gordon Kwan (VP Hardware Engineering) - Levi Wolfe (VP Cloud Engineering) - Kevin Rohling (VP Product) - Kevin Wolfe (VP Embedded Engineering) - Steve Arnold (Chief Design Officer) - Tony Lee (VP Marketing) - Lexii Shaw (Community Manager) ## Q&A - Q: Will there be any tax docs/K-1s for 2019? - Q: according to the wefunder email sent out today 12/20/18 this company has failed and our investment is now valued as a tax write off. - Q: How do I obtain my 2016 K-1 please? - A: Hello Sean - Please contact Wefunder support for documents. - Q: Hello, My name is miss laura, i saw your profile and it drew my attention to write to you. I would like you to communicate me through my e-mail address (sgt.lauraralph2@gmail.com) laura - Q: I'm trying to invest in Emberlight, I've already been approved as an investor, where and how do I go about it? - Q: I see that according to the JOBS Act anyone can invest in Emberlight, how can I before it closes.... and why does it still say SORRY, you must be accredited? Where do I go to invest? - A: Hey Regina! Great question. Unfortunately Emberlight's fundraise is restricted to accredited investors. They've chosen to employ Regulation D (not Reg CF) which means they can only raise from select investors. Apologies for the confusion! - Q: Hi Atif, thanks for your response! One further question on competition: In the smart lighting space, there seems 3 types of solutions which quite mutually exclusive - 1) smart socket (eg Emberlight) 2) smart light bulb (eg ilumi) and 3) smart lightpad (eg Plum). Do you see these 3 solutions competing for the same customers? What are the pros and cons of each solution? Thanks again! - A: Hi Yin Ye - Great question. Overall, the big difference is that our long term approach is to integrate our technology platform into various lighting products - the OEM/lighting manufacturer model. We are already working with 5 lighting manufacturers on this approach. The smart socket is our entry product and was designed for simplicity and low friction adoption. The differences between the 3 categories are as follows. The lightpad model (#3) is a good long term approach since it has the benefit of integrating a physical interface and can control multiple lights, but is not well suited for short term market penetration due to the complexity involved with the installation process - high voltage re-wiring. That channel is better suited for home builders, contractors, system integrators, etc., which is a much longer sales cycle and has a slower penetration rate. Smart light bulbs (#2) are also a good long term model (if done correctly), however are only suited specifically for people making the transition from an old light source (Incandescent, Halogen) to new (LEDs), and ALSO want to invest in home automation. Our approach (smart socket) separates the decision of light source and lighting controls, to minimize the decisions required for the user to purchase. For example, if the user has already invested in LED bulbs that are supposed to last 20 years, we can make them smart. We focus entirely on lighting controls (and not light source), and have created core differentiation that provides a better user experience. Home automation and IoT is a land grab right now, so the products with the lowest friction to entry will have the best opportunity for long term success. - Q: Hi Atif, I come late to this funding round and get very interested in Emberlight (btw congrats on the 5-star ratings on Amazon). When are you planning to close this additional round? Also in reviewing your Jan investor update, you mentioned you would be launching at Target in May and releasing "Works with Nest" in Q1, could you please give an update on these? How many units have been shipped to date? Thanks. - A: Hello Yin - Thank you for the note and interest in emberlight! We are planning to close in 2.5 weeks. We just shipped the first PO to Target yesterday! Our product listing just went up today (http://www.target.com/p/emberlight-smart-light-socket/-/A-51207773), and will be live with inventory next week. We have completed the initial engineering work for "Works with Nest" and submitted to Nest. We were asked to make some changes before approval. During that time, the home automation landscape changed significantly with the rise in voice automation. So, we are responding to this shift by putting Nest on hold, and shifting priorities to first release an integration with Amazon Alexa and also release our public API for all 3rd party developers. The public API is now in beta testing and we are in direct discussions with Amazon for Alexa integration. We've shipped out 6200 devices. We're also now working on getting setup with another major consumer electronics retailer (I can disclose privately, but I'm sure you can guess). I'm happy to answer any additional questions. Thanks! - Q: How much capital are you looking for in the next round of financing? Is there a limit to the amount of capital that can be invested per investor? - A: Our target is $200k, but are open to larger investments above that. There isn't a real limit to the amount of capital per investor. - Q: As an angel investor can I invest in your business? if yes, then contact me via email for further discussion. - A: Hi John - Yes you can! Thanks for your interest in emberlight. After logging in and going through the Wefunder approval process, you should have access. There is a green button at the top right of the screen. - Q: Do you plan to sell in retail locations? The HUE is sold at apple stores, I assume they would be the best brick and mortar store for this industry is getting your product in the apple store, best buy, etc a path you are taking or strictly online / licensing with other light bulb manufacturers? - A: Hi Alexander - We will do a brick & mortar retail launch with 1 strategic partner in the spring of 2016. Since retail can be fatal to a startup if done too quickly, we are being selective on who we partner with. We have identified 3 national retailers (2 consumer electronics, and 1 home improvement) that we'd like to work with. We currently have samples out for testing with them and have gotten very positive feedback thus far. - Q: Hi Atif, watched the video of you introducing ember light to the secretary of commerce--awesome stuff! I wanted to get your opinion on LIFX and contrast it with emberlight. They seem to have a similar price point and are selling on Amazon as well. Do you think there is a demand for a light with such multi functionality at a low price point? Does your Amazon agreement offer any exclusivity when it comes to selling competitive brands of smart lights? Thanks - A: Hi Dilraj - Thanks for the note! The only similarity between LIFX and emberlight is that both are hubless. But even then, their setup process (soft AP) is very painful (it took me 30 minutes and I have a PhD) and is a single unit by single unit setup. From there, our approaches are vastly different. Our strategy is to focus on a platform emphasizing software, connectivity and UX. Their strategy is similar to other connected bulbs, which is focused on hardware - starting off with an LED and adding a wireless chip to it. Typically, software and UX are not the emphasis and take a backseat. Check out the overall ratings for the app by googling "itunes lifx" (2.5 stars). In our evaluation, we had to actually download a second app to do a firmware upgrade, and the cloud (remote access) was not functional. Additionally, the major difference in our approach is our long term OEM strategy - which is to partner with lighting companies on smart lighting products that aggregate on our platform. A light bulb company may not want to do that since they would essentially be collaborating on products that would compete with their own. Regarding pricing- What we've seen historically with cheap solutions for connected bulbs is bad UX. The most notorious is the GE Link bulb ($15). Gizmodo wrote a whole article on how bad this is (link --> http://embr.li/1I8Urbt). With Amazon, there isn't exclusivity (not really their style). - Q: How would this work with a dimmer switch? I imagine if someone dims the switch to 10% on the HW switch it will throttle the output. So you kind of have two dimmer controls --off the dimmer switch and via emberlight. Also what's the plan for exit for investors to get their money back? Is the primary use of funds just to build product now and get to shipping? Biggest risk you see in executing your plan? - A: Hey Lawrence - The socket has a dimmer already, so it isn't designed to work with an upstream (e.g. wall) dimmer. In other words, we specify that the consumer should not use emberlight if there is a wall dimmer in place already. Our top priorities are to execute, build a world-class company and grow. The funds will be used to (1) Expand our team in engineering, operations and business development, (2) for channel development, and (3) to market the emberlight socket at shipment/launch. As with most hardware startups, there is risk in being able to ship the product. We've attacked this head on. I come from a semiconductor device and semiconductor manufacturing background, and we teamed up with one of the largest manufacturers in the world (Flextronics). They are also an investor in emberlight, so they have skin in the game to make sure we succeed. Although we have had some minor delays due to technology changes, we've de-risked this aspect significantly. We made the decision to go through NPI (new product introduction) at one of their local sites here in Milpitas to reduce risk. Reasons include (1) faster to market, (2) allows for fast cycles of learning, (3) we can put out fires and troubleshoot quickly (4) don't have to worry about freight, customs/taxes, port strikes (5) don't have to deal with communication issues - all of these things reduce risk to get to market. After we build the first pre-order units and the manufacturing flow is established, we'll transfer the process within the Flextronics system to a low cost facility offshore. They've gone through this type of flow with many products that we all use today. - Q: How do I invest? - A: Hi Robbie - Thanks for your interest in emberlight! After logging in and going through the approval process, you should have access. There is a green button at the top right of the screen. I've also asked the Wefunder folks to contact you as well to help. - A: Hey Robbie, Atif has is right. Once you sign up as an accredited investor, you can invest directly via the Emberlight page. First you need to finish the sign up process which should just take a minute. I've sent you an email with more details. - Q: Does it require constant power similar to Hue? If so what's the constant draw? What happens if it's connected to a switch and someone accidentally shuts the entire switch off? Any physical control or alternative control so when guests come over and want to adjust the lights they can or do you need to give them your phone? IFTTT? iOS/Android? Do you see your market more apartments/condos or SFR? - A: Great questions. We are converting AC power to DC directly from the socket to power the control/wireless electronics. So, yes there is a constant draw. This hasn't been optimized yet, and is currently around 0.5W. After all features are finalized, we will go back and work on power optimization (e.g. putting chips to sleep). If someone cuts power upstream with a switch, then the light will be OFF and will not be able to turn back ON through emberlight controls (similar to any connected bulb) since there is no power. You would need to turn the physical light switch back ON to turn the light back ON and can resume control with emberlight. After a power cycle like that, we default the light to the previous ON state. Unless that previous state is OFF, then we turn the light ON (since there is intent to turn a light ON if someone flips a switch ON). For guest access, there are several possibilities: (1) We built in a guest access feature into the software. In fact, our architecture is device agnostic and all account, presets, access controls are stored in the cloud. So, you could provide a guest with temporary access through your app to specified lights (e.g. house lights from July 8-10). They will receive a text (or email) with a link which will either download the app (or open if they already have it), and access will auto-populate. We built this feature since we had a lot of interest from the rental market (e.g. AirBnB). (2) We have integrations with a few companies that do alternative input/physical controls. Two that we already have are Sentri which has a touchscreen controller and Senic who has a haptic input device. We've also created a prototype of a simple bluetooth button/switch that interfaces with emberlight, although we'll likely partner with another company on this. (3) Guests can always us the light switch to turn the light ON if needed. We have an open API and will be working on integration such as IFTTT. We're going iOS first, followed by Android. We've seen interest from both apartments/condos and SFRs, although people with higher end homes will likely look into more expensive professionally installed wired systems (e.g. Lutron). The driver is the flexibility and easy install/uninstall.