Connectify has turned to crowdfunding to help it raise $50,000 to commercialize its connection-aggregation technology.
The Philadelphia startup initiated a campaign on crowdfunding site Kickstarter for its Connectify Dispatch application, which lets a PC connect to multiple networks simultaneously and use the combined throughput of all connections. "For the first time, any number of Wi-Fi, 3G/4G mobile broadband and wired connections can be used simultaneously, with Dispatch leveraging up to 90 percent of their combined speed," said Alex Gizis, founder and CEO of Connectify.
In addition, when one network connection fails, Connectify Dispatch seamlessly shifts traffic onto other working connections as needed.
"Our $50,000 campaign goal will ensure that we can deliver a functional version of Connectify Dispatch for Windows 7/XP/Vista," according to the company's Kickstarter pitch.
The company said if it reaches its $250,000 "stretch goal," it will "be able to develop a vastly enhanced version of Connectify Dispatch, bringing to life the sleek, elegantly-designed Dispatch user interface that our design team has imagined." Raising $2 million would enable the company to expand Connectify Dispatch to Macs, Connectify said.
Connectify claims the core technology for Dispatch is in working order but said it turned to Kickstarter "to prove that there is widespread demand for a fully-featured Connectify Dispatch consumer product."
A pledge of $10 or more earns a backer a six-month license of the company's flagship software router, Connectify Hotspot Pro, while the first 200 backers will receive one-year licenses for both Connectify Dispatch and Connectify Hotspot Pro for $40. All other backers will receive Dispatch and Hotspot Pro for $50, half the price of the projected $99.99 retail value, said Connectify.
As of Aug. 12, Connectify's Kickstarter campaign was 26 percent funded with $13,331 pledged. The funding campaign ends Sept. 7, 2012.
Connectify's first line of business started in 2009, when the company--then known as Nomadio--announced it had discovered Virtual Wi-Fi, a partly finished feature in Windows 7 that could turn a laptop into a wireless access point. There was no app for using the feature, so Nomadio rolled out its Connectify app, which enabled other devices to share the connection without special software, a concept that pre-dated today's mainstream adoption of mobile Wi-Fi hotpots.
For more:
- see this Connectify release
- see this GigaOM article
Related articles:
Nomadio uses Windows 7 feature to turn laptops into WiFi hotspots
T-Mobile pushes hotspots instead of shared data