Life360 bags additional $7M for smart home integration

The family locator welcomes strategic investor The Duchossois Group

True story: a month or two ago, I left my 14-year-old sister in charge of my son while my husband and I went to a party. I put a pizza in the oven before I left, and I was so terrified that my sister wouldn’t remember to turn off the oven that I actually went home 20 minutes later to check. (I had set the alarm and texted her to remind her, but that wasn’t enough peace of mind.)

So I’m really looking forward to the day when I can check my phone and see that the oven is turned off, the thermostat has been lowered, the garage door is closed, and the dogs have water (a smart bowl?). Life360 is thinking the same thing. The company announced Tuesday that it has partnered with The Duchossois Group to integrate its service with smart home products. The Duchossois Group is also a strategic investor, having invested an unannounced $7 million in follow-on funding as part of Life360’s Series B.

The Duchossois Group’s portfolio companies include smart home companies Chamberlain and Brivo Labs. Chamberlain specializes in smart garage doors and clickers while Brivo Labs develops Social Access Management products that let home- and business owners manage all of their facilities remotely.

Life360 will integrate its private Family Graph API with Chamberlain and Brivo Labs’ smart home products to sync them up with family presence data. For example, Chamberlain can use the family presence data to create a garage door that automatically closes when all of the family members are out of the house.

CEO Chris Hulls tells me that 40% of Life360 users have a home security system and some 13% have a smart home device. 

"Our active users have grown 400% in the last year," said Hulls, who declined to give exact numbers but said it is in the "many many millions" range now, "and the pace is accelerating."

Founded in 2008, Life360 allows families to quickly and easily locate wandering children, receive alerts when a family member reaches her or his destination, and open a chat on the secure FamilyChannel. In the event of an emergency, the app comes with a Panic Alert that allows you to send a voicemail, email, and notification to everyone in your family.

Earlier this year, Life360 introduced its geo-fencing feature "Places," which allows users to identify their favorite places and receive alerts when family members arrive.
And Life360 introduced “Circles” this fall, which allows users to create separate groups for friends, family, and caregivers with separate privacy controls for each group.

Over 20 million families use Life360, and over 26 million circles have been created so far.

Earlier this year, the company raised $10 million in a Series B round led by DCM, with participation from existing investors. Life360 has hinted at more Internet of Things integrations in the future, such as automotive features so you can see where you parked your car, and more.