Esper Enterprises Inc., a startup developing technology for managing “internet of things” device fleets powered by Android, disclosed on Thursday that it has closed a $30 million funding round led by Scale Venture Partners.

Android, though best known as a mobile operating system, is also used in a large variety of other hardware. It can be found in systems ranging from self-service checkout kiosks at retail stores to digital signage and certain medical devices. Esper has developed a suite of technology products that it says make it easier to build and maintain large-scale Android IoT deployments.

The specific challenge the startup hopes to address is that operating a large device fleet requires companies to create software tooling to perform maintenance tasks such as releasing security updates. In some cases, they have to build parts of that software tooling from scratch. Moreover, the tooling needs to be continuously maintained and updated as operational requirements change, which can add up to considerable operational overhead.

Esper has built a collection of pre-packaged tools that it says cover all the core aspects of running a device fleet. For device maintenance, companies have access to cloud-based services that allow them to monitor Android-powered systems for errors, secure them and perform configuration changes like updating the onboard software. Esper also offers a customized version of Android with extra security features that is available as part of devices from third-party manufacturers.

The other major focus of Esper’s product suite is helping companies deploy custom software on their connected devices. The startup provides an emulator that allows developers to test Android applications on a virtual copy of a system. The startup also offers application troubleshooting features, delivered as an extension to Google LLC’s Android Studio coding tool, and features for rolling out software updates to devices.

“Just as AWS rapidly accelerated the time to bring a web application to market, Esper gives developers and engineers the platform to bring their dedicated devices and associated apps to market exponentially faster,” Esper Chief Executive Officer Yadhu Gopalan (pictured, fourth from the right) wrote in a blog post.  Gopalan launched the startup in 2018 with co-founder Shiv Sundar after leading systems engineering Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Go cashierless store group.

Scale Venture Partners, the lead investor in Esper’s new round, counts major enterprise software players such as HubSpot Inc. and JFrog Inc. among its previous investments. The round also inlcuded the participation of Madrona Venture Group, Root Ventures, Ubiquity Ventures and Haystack.

It’s not just venture capitalists who have identified a market opportunity in the rapid growth of enterprise connected device deployments. Last year, Twilio Inc. acquired IoT startup Electric Imp, which developed chip modules that companies can use to build connected devices and cloud services for managing them. 

Photo: Esper