The innovative Swedish company that introduced the wearable Memoto camera announces two significant developments as it prepares for product availability on November 1st, including the closing of $3 million of funding, led by San Francisco-based VC, True Ventures, and a new name for the company brand, now “Narrative” and its debut product, “Narrative Clip.
We’re looking forward to moving into this new stage of our company’s history with a fresh, new face for the brand and a financing round that will help to ensure a successful upcoming product launch,” said Martin Kallstrom, CEO of Narrative.
The name change comes after Memoto was notified that its former name could not be used on a global scale, specifically because it conflicts with a similar name in the market. “Our company has come a long way under the name Memoto and we are all sad to give it up,” said Oskar Kalmaru, VP of Marketing “however, we’ve quickly grown to love the new name, Narrative, and it is one that describes what we’ve been trying to do all along – help users tell the stories of their lives. We called the camera “Narrative Clip” to reflect its attributes of being wearable, quick and tiny.
Along with its new brand identity, Narrative approaches availability with a new financing round of $3M. True Ventures, who has previously funded consumer electronics startups including MakerBot and Fitbit, as well as software startups such as Kiip, Puppet Labs and WordPress (Automattic), lead the recent funding round. “True Ventures has a history of investing in founders who create products that capture the imagination,” said Phil Black, co-founder of early stage venture capital firm, True Ventures. He continued, “With Narrative, that investment theme continues. We were instantly enchanted by the boundless possibilities that the Narrative Clip camera and app create for the consumer.
Also participating in the financing round was LDV Capital along with London-based Passion Capital. Narrative had secured its seed round last summer from Passion Capital as well as angel investors Peter Read and Felix Petersen, together with private investor Evan Nisselson through LDV Capital, who has over 20 years of building digital imaging products and an investment focus in digital imaging/video technologies.
We were captivated by the possibilities and potential of Narrative Clip and its intelligent companion app from our very first meeting with the team in early 2012. It’s a pleasure to see how consumers and investors alike have validated that interest and we’re looking forward to first product availability to see how much the demand really grows,” said Eileen Burbidge, Partner at Passion Capital.
Narrative has received thousands of pre-orders for Narrative Clip since its introduction on Kickstarter in late 2012. Narrative Clip is a wearable camera that snaps automatic photos of life as-it-happens, creating a searchable and shareable photographic memory through its companion mobile app. Pre-orders can be made through www.getnarrative.com for $279 and first shipments are expected in November.
