Center Electric

This venture capital firm invests in IoT companies, focusing on industrial and consumer applications, with a unique value proposition centered around the Int...

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Updated: Mar 19, 2026 ·

About

Center Electric believes that the Internet of Things (IoT) is the most revolutionary expansion of computing since the dawn of the personal computer. The Things themselves are a bellwether of the Internet's Third Wave. The Third Wave is the expansion of connectivity to everything else, for both industrial and consumer use. Early indicators of this are the rise of cloud computing, the development of low power wireless technologies, and the initial rise of connected objects.

Financial History

Total Raised

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Valuation

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Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Aug 1, 2019	Zero	$3.0M Seed	—	CRV, Daffy, Greylock, Khosla Ventures, True Ventures, Scott Banister, 20VC, AngelList Syndicator, Antler, Charles Gorintin, Chris Murphy, Claire Hughes Johnson, Darius Contractor, Felix Capital, Jan Deepen, Jean Charles Samuelian, Jeremy Yap, Mario Götze, Martin Enderle, Mathilde Collin, Motier Ventures, Nicolas Brusson, Pete Koomen, Philippe Teixeira da Mota, Philipp Kloeckner, Phillip Chambers, Romain Niccoli, Shane Neman, Stefan Jeschonnek, Tom Blomfield, Y Combinator
Sep 1, 2018	Zero	$1.0M Seed	—	CRV, Daffy, Greylock, Khosla Ventures, True Ventures, Scott Banister
Jun 1, 2018	Embodied	$22.0M Series A	—	Amazon Alexa Fund, Basecase Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Calibrate Ventures, Eclipse Ventures, Jazz Venture Partners, Lightstone Ventures, M13, M34 Capital, Rainfall Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Speedinvest, Stanley Ventures, Team Ignite Ventures, Dan Siroker, Darius Contractor, Humberto Ayres Pereira, Jay Adelson, Jonathan Widawski, Karl Jacob, Scott Belsky, Tom Williams
Dec 1, 2017	Caavo	$18.0M Series B	—	CRV, Daffy, DCM, Equity Alliance, Flex Capital, Fortress Investment Group, Greylock, Khosla Ventures, NFX, Northzone, The Finger Group, True Ventures, Waverley Capital, Scott Banister
May 1, 2017	Guardant Health	$360.0M Series E	—	Alta Life Sciences, Alumni Ventures, Codon Capital, Cota Capital, CRV, Daffy, Felicis Ventures, Greylock, Krishna Yeshwant, Highbury Group, Khosla Ventures, Matrix, Menlo Ventures, OrbiMed, Pear VC, Pillar VC, Tencent Holdings, True Ventures, WndrCo LLC, Chris Schaepe, Farzad Nazem, Laszlo Bock, Rich Miner, Scott Banister
Feb 1, 2017	Caavo	$15.0M Series A	—	CRV, Daffy, DCM, Greylock, Khosla Ventures, Northzone, True Ventures, Waverley Capital, Scott Banister
Nov 1, 2016	Ava	$2.0M Seed	—	8-Bit Capital, Angular Ventures, Aux21 Capital, Battery Ventures, Boldstart Ventures, Bond, Caffeinated Capital, Catapult Capital, FJ Labs, Gotham Gal Ventures, Kima Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, M34 Capital, Offline Ventures, Otherwise Fund, Partech Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, Stanley Ventures, Team Ignite Ventures, Threshold Ventures, Tribe Capital, Uncork Capital, Y Combinator, Aaron Harris, Alex Kayyal, Diane Hessan, Eoghan McCabe, Eric Ries, Frederic Kerrest, Hiten Shah, Jay Adelson, Jean-David Blanc, Sam Hickmann, Stefan Muehlemann, Stewart Butterfield, Thibaud Elziere
May 1, 2016	Earny	$3.0M Seed	—	Catapult Capital, CRV, Daffy, Greylock, Khosla Ventures, Kickstart Fund, NextView Ventures, NFX, Hans Tung, Science, Sweet Capital, True Ventures, Scott Banister, Tom Williams
May 1, 2016	Imzy	$3.0M Seed	—	CRV, Daffy, Greylock, InterWest, Khosla Ventures, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, True Ventures, Uncork Capital, Wildcat Ventures, Cameron Lester, Christine Herron, Scott Banister
Jan 1, 2016	Guardant Health	$100.0M Series D	—	Alta Life Sciences, Alumni Ventures, Band of Angels, Codon Capital, Cota Capital, CRV, Daffy, Felicis Ventures, Greylock, Krishna Yeshwant, Highbury Group, Khosla Ventures, Matrix, Menlo Ventures, OrbiMed, Pear VC, Pillar VC, Quiet Capital, RET Ventures, SciFi VC, Slow Ventures, Tencent Holdings, True Ventures, WndrCo LLC, Bradley Horowitz, Chris Schaepe, Farzad Nazem, Jeremy Stoppelman, Laszlo Bock, Rich Miner, Scott Banister
Dec 1, 2015	FreeWire Technologies	$2.0M Seed	—	M34 Capital, Stanley Ventures, Team Ignite Ventures, Abhas Gupta, Jay Adelson
Apr 1, 2015	Scalyr	$2.0M Seed	—	Adverb Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, AngelPad, Chloe Sladden, Bascom Ventures, Bling Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Bono, Caffeinated Capital, Chemistry VC, Matt Ocko, Electric Capital, Footwork, General Catalyst, Hardware Club, Heretic Ventures, Highbury Group, Hoxton Ventures, Humba Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Kindred Ventures, Merus Capital, Moxxie Ventures, Quiet Capital, SciFi VC, South Park Commons, Threshold Ventures, Y Combinator, Aaron Levie, Bill Tai, Charlie Songhurst, Drew Houston, John Kobs, Julia Hartz, Marissa Mayer, Todd Corenson, Todd Warren
Feb 1, 2015	Guardant Health	$50.0M Series C	—	Atlas Venture, Cota Capital, CRV, Daffy, Greylock, Highbury Group, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Khosla Ventures, Kurma Partners, Matrix, OrbiMed, Pear VC, Pillar VC, SR One, Tencent Holdings, True Ventures, WndrCo LLC, Chris Schaepe, Farzad Nazem, Laszlo Bock, Rich Miner, Scott Banister
Dec 1, 2014	Man Crates	$3.0M Seed	—	Accelerator Ventures, Catapult Capital, CP Ventures, CRV, Daffy, Fifth Wall, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Greylock, Javelin Venture Partners, Kain Capital, Khosla Ventures, Outlander Labs, Partech Ventures, ThirdLove, True Ventures, Unpopular Ventures, Clark Landry, Ding Zhou, Erik Moore, Scott Banister
Apr 1, 2014	Guardant Health	$30.0M Series B	—	2048 Ventures, Atlas Venture, August Capital, Band of Angels, Cota Capital, CRV, Daffy, Ensemble VC, Forerunner Ventures, Greylock, Highbury Group, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Kurma Partners, Pear VC, SR One, True Ventures, Nicolas Berggruen, Nirav Tolia, Scott Banister
Mar 1, 2013	Postmates	$5.0M Series A	—	1955 Capital, Alpha JWC Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, AngelPad, Atomic, Boost VC, Brainchild, Coatue, Cota Capital, CRV, CyberAgent Ventures, Daffy, Draper Associates, Founders Fund, Greylock, High Alpha, Kapor Capital, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Long Journey Ventures, OrbiMed, Pear VC, Plug & Play Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Shine Capital, Signal Foundation, Sofinnova Investments, Tiger Global Management, True Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Aaron Levie, Alan Braverman, Amos Elliston, Farzad Nazem, Flavio Nicolay Guimaraes, Freada Kapor Klein, Jacob Kerzner, Jared Kopf, Jim Young, Joshua Schachter, Noah Goodhart, Scott Banister, Seth Goldstein, Ted Driscoll
Oct 1, 2011	PullString	$4.0M Series A	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Betaworks Ventures, Greylock, M.G. Siegler, K5 Ventures, LAUNCH, Lowercarbon Capital, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, SV Angel, Peter Chernin, True Ventures, Vayner RSE, James Hong, Josh Elman, Matt Mazzeo, MG Siegler, Philip Kaplan, Rick Johanson, Sean Ellis

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Center Electric.

Leadership Team

Key people at Center Electric.

Deep Dive

Center Electric is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, particularly targeting both industrial and consumer applications. Their mission centers on supporting founders passionate about the transformative potential of a connected world, emphasizing the importance of building a robust infrastructure to enable IoT innovations to scale efficiently. Unlike many VCs that focus narrowly on consumer IoT products, Center Electric invests across the full stack—from the underlying infrastructure to the hardware devices—aiming to support the expansion of the Internet's "Third Wave" and the anticipated growth to 50 billion connected devices by 2020[1][5].

Founded to address the critical need for a stable and scalable IoT ecosystem, Center Electric believes that success in IoT depends not just on the "Things" themselves but on the powerful infrastructure that supports them. This holistic investment philosophy positions them uniquely in the venture capital landscape, where many firms focus on flashy consumer products without addressing foundational challenges. Their impact on the startup ecosystem lies in enabling startups to innovate faster and more effectively by providing capital and collaborative resources that nurture the entire IoT stack[1][5].

Origin Story

Center Electric was established as a specialized early-stage venture capital firm with a clear focus on IoT infrastructure and devices. While the exact founding year and key partners are not explicitly detailed in the available sources, the firm emerged with a vision to invest in the full IoT stack, recognizing the need for scalable infrastructure to support the explosive growth of connected devices. This focus evolved from observing the limitations of existing VC approaches that often overlooked the importance of foundational technologies in favor of consumer-facing products[1][5].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Center Electric invests across the entire IoT stack, including infrastructure, hardware, and software, rather than focusing solely on consumer applications or single-device startups[1].
Ecosystem Focus: They emphasize building a powerful and stable ecosystem that accelerates innovation by providing startups with the context and resources needed to differentiate themselves effectively[1].
Early-Stage Specialization: The firm targets early-stage companies, helping founders tackle complex problems with capital and collaboration[5].
Holistic Support: Beyond funding, Center Electric offers operational support and network access tailored to IoT startups, facilitating faster go-to-market and scaling[1][5].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Center Electric rides the wave of the Internet of Things as a revolutionary expansion of computing, comparable to the personal computer era. The timing is critical, as the IoT market is poised for massive growth, with billions of devices expected to come online, driving demand for scalable infrastructure and innovative hardware solutions. Market forces such as increased connectivity, edge computing, and industrial automation favor firms like Center Electric that invest in the foundational layers of IoT. By supporting the full stack, they influence the broader ecosystem by enabling startups to overcome technical and market barriers, accelerating the adoption of IoT technologies across industries[1][4].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Center Electric is well-positioned to capitalize on ongoing trends such as edge AI, 5G connectivity, and industrial IoT expansion. As IoT continues to permeate both consumer and industrial sectors, the firm's comprehensive approach to investing in infrastructure and devices will likely enhance its influence and portfolio value. The increasing complexity and scale of IoT deployments underscore the importance of their ecosystem-centric investment philosophy. Future growth may also involve deeper collaborations with corporate partners and expansion into emerging IoT sub-sectors, reinforcing their role as a catalyst for the connected world's next phase[1][3][5].

Sources

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Center Electric invests across the entire IoT stack, including infrastructure, hardware, and software, rather than focusing solely on consumer applications or single-device startups[1].
Ecosystem Focus: They emphasize building a powerful and stable ecosystem that accelerates innovation by providing startups with the context and resources needed to differentiate themselves effectively[1].
Early-Stage Specialization: The firm targets early-stage companies, helping founders tackle complex problems with capital and collaboration[5].
Holistic Support: Beyond funding, Center Electric offers operational support and network access tailored to IoT startups, facilitating faster go-to-market and scaling[1][5].