CasaiQ announces name change, high-profile investors in $1.5M round
December 1, 2017 | Bobby Burch
Techstars Kansas City graduate CasaiQ is hoping a new funding round — and new name — will accelerate the development and deployment of its smart home tech.
Led by former Brightergy exec Adam Blake, CasaiQ announced Friday that it raised a $1.5 million round, which includes a handful of local investors. The KCRise fund, Techstars Ventures, Zoloz CEO Toby Rush, ShotTracker co-founder Davyeon Ross, S2 Capital CEO Scott Everett and other undisclosed investors joined in the round.
The firm also announced that it has changed names to become “Zego.”
“The new name – Zego – better represents who we are as we move beyond a smart home solution to more of a digital amenity platform,” Blake said in a release.
Zego has created a platform for apartment owners and managers to offer residents a digital amenity package, including smart home technology. Zego provides a mobile app to residents that enables them to control devices — such as smart locks, thermostats and lights — in their apartments and streamlines interactions with their property manager.
Zego’s property manager portal helps managers to control such devices as door locks and thermostats, helping to increase operational efficiency for maintenance staff and leasing agents.
“Smart homes, integrated services and enhanced user experiences packaged into a platform is a global opportunity over the next five to 10 years,” said Rush, CEO of Kansas City-based Zoloz. “Zego has an early-movers advantage in the U.S. with global scale in its future.”
Blake and Zego recently completed the three-month, mentor-led Techstars Kansas City program. At the program’s October demo day event, Blake announced that Zego had 9,000 apartment units under contract.
Founded in 2017, the company is currently hiring for five positions, including roles in customer service, software engineering and sales.
Featured Business
2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Meet the leaders driving Black & Veatch’s entrepreneurial revival
In June, Kansas City construction giant Black & Veatch kicked off an effort to accelerate new, innovative ideas by adopting a concept common among startups. The Overland Park-based corporation launched the B&V Growth Accelerator, which hopes to challenge the global firm’s traditional methods of generating and launching ideas. Black & Veatch — which works with…
One Kansas City startup survives national Kauffman contest
After about a month of public deliberation, the 1 in a Million pitch competition has narrowed participating startups down to a top five — and one hails from Kansas City. Although five area companies advanced to the top 40, The Grooming Project is last startup standing from Kansas City. A panel of Kauffman fellows will…
Not in Kansas anymore: Mycroft opens Kansas City, Silicon Valley offices
Editor’s note: This content is sponsored by LaunchKC but independently produced by Startland News. After a recent seed round that was topped off with a $50,000 LaunchKC grant, artificial intelligence startup Mycroft is moving from Lawrence to the City of Fountains. Mycroft — which developed an open-source, artificial intelligence device similar to Amazon Echo — not…
AOL founder Steve Case says innovators must become policy savvy
Get familiar with public policy or your company will get left behind. That was the forward-looking message that AOL founder Steve Case had for a group of about 200 investors and entrepreneurs at the 2016 Kauffman Fellows summit in Kansas City. Now the CEO of Revolution, Case argued that investors, entrepreneurs and policymakers will have…