After five years of working on his connected kettle, Robert Hill ready to bring the product to the United States in 2017.
The former project manager and civil engineer founded his company, AppKettle, back in 2011 and launched a crowdfunding campaign in March of 2015. Despite a valiant effort with over 400 backers and almost £65 thousand in pledges, they cancelled the campaign and soon found external investment.
Fast forward to late last year and the company shipped their smart kettle in the UK and Europe and is setting its sites on delivering the kettle into the US market. The product, which will be priced around $169, will ship in the US by this summer according to Hill.
We caught up with Hill on the show floor at CES and he had this to say about the coming US launch: “(We’re) looking for the right partners. We’ve had a lot of interest, but it’s a very complex area and want to pick the right people. As you can see here (pointing to AppKettle), these are American proven standards. It’s not getting getting logistics and distribution and pricing model correct.”
You can listen to our interview from the show floor with Hill above.