Smart home alarm start-up Boundary seeks £2.5m from first funding round

An Edinburgh-based start-up founded by the duo behind intelligent payment system IPOS is looking to raise £2.5 million to “revolutionise” home security.

Boundary co-founders Robin Knox (left) and Paul Walton say the market is ripe for disruption. Picture: Chris Watt

Boundary, a smart home alarm venture established by entrepreneurs Robin Knox and Paul Walton, has launched its first funding round as it aims to boost headcount and bring its product to market.

The business said it is seeking up to £2.5m investment to create a number of digital jobs at its capital base, which will include roles in cloud infrastructure and mobile app development.

A portion of any funding raised will also be used to carry out continued testing and development of the final product – a smart home alarm system, which is due to launch later this year.

The equity funding round, pushed back from its original start date late last year, is due to close at the end of June.

In addition to this, Boundary intends to launch a Kickstarter campaign next month with the aim of selling between 500 and 1,000 units of its product. This would equate to between £100,000 and £200,000 in pre-sales revenue.

The firm believes that the burglar alarm market is “ripe for disruption” and is targeting a presence in 100,000 homes within four years of its product launch.

Its intruder alarm is to offer a certified police response and include smart features such as geofencing and the ability to integrate with Alexa or Google Home.

The company’s future plans include developing a camera that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence, learning as it watches to protect a property’s boundary.

It will be designed to detect any suspicious activity and proactively alert the user before a break-in takes place.

To date, the founders invested £800,000 to self-fund Boundary.

Knox, who was inspired to launch the firm after searching for an affordable self-install security system for his own home, said: “We’re pleased to be launching our first official round of investment for Boundary.

“So far, all the money put into the business has been our own but we are now ready to take it to the next level and are looking for support from investors who are keen to be part of Scotland’s next tech success story.

“We recognise that humans have a deep-rooted instinct to protect their property and possessions, so our mission is to create the leading smart home security alarm that is affordable, accessible and most importantly, brings crime rates down by deterring criminals through the application of technology.”

Knox and Walton’s payment services venture IPOS, which stands for intelligent point of sale, was sold to Swedish mobile payments company iZettle in 2016 for an undisclosed sum. Soon after, the Swedish firm was acquired by payment giant PayPal for $2.2 billion (£1.7bn).

The duo has since become increasingly active in Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

In 2017, Knox founded early stage investor Seed Haus, a technology accelerator that brings together a community of entrepreneurs, investors and digital makers. Walton later joined as a partner and investor.