As we reported this morning, the Cinder smart grill was resurrected from the crowdfunded hardware deadpool when Desora announced it had purchased the company. The announcement sparked a bunch of questions, so I followed up with Desora Founder and CEO, Michel Maalouly. Here’s a brief summary of what I learned.
- Desora bought “every single thing under Cinder,” said Maalouly. That includes hardware, trademarks, and the IP portfolio.
- Palate Home, parent company of Cinder, never actually filed for bankruptcy. Maalouly said he learned about Cinder shutting down (our October coverage played a part!) and immediately reached out to the previous owner to talk about an acquisition; Palate Home never even got to the filing stage.
- Units were built and waiting in a factory. Maalouly didn’t give a specific number but said that at the time of the acquisition, there was a factory in China “full of completed products.” Maalouly went out to China to do QA to make sure the units could be sent to Indiegogo backers.
- “Every single person who backed it and didn’t receive product yet, will receive [a Cinder],” Maalouly confirmed. He couldn’t provide a timeline for when people would receive units, but the company has started the process of reaching out to Indiegogo backers.
- The company will keep making Cinders. Maalouly said the asset portfolio around Cinder was incredibly rich, and the technology “very valuable.” Desora will keep making Cinders and will use its own Chinese manufacturing experience to improve the supply chain going forward.
- Desora is also paying attention to the software. Cinder isn’t just hardware: there is also the software side, which the company will continue to support. The Cinder Android app is already in private beta and software going forward will work on legacy units.
- The company is also expanding the software functionality. Desora has 14 Cinder-powered recipes on its site and the company will be integrating those recipes (and more) into the app.
All this is great, but really, we’re just happy that people who put money down for their Cinders will finally be getting them. And with new units now for sale online, we’ll see if Cinder’s grill technology is really as hot as Maalouly thinks it is.
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