The partnership with Arduino will enable Renesas to make its broad range of products available for Arduino’s technology platforms used by its worldwide developer community.
Arduino was first developed as an easy-to-use tool for fast prototyping aimed at students without a background in electronics and programming, but since then has expanded to offer tools for education and professionals.
Today, the company is focusing on empowering a new generation of professional engineers with enterprise scale applications. Arduino recently unveiled plans to expand its portfolio of hardware, software, connectivity and developer tools for professionals and into the enterprise, broadening its offering beyond makers and students.
According to Arduino, the strategy is designed to deliver more of the speed, simplicity and power inherent in its platform to the enterprise.
Arduino complements Renesas’ global strategy of reaching a broader range of customers by enabling designers around the world access to Arduino’s open-source platform.
To help advance Arduino’s plans, Renesas is investing $10 million into Arduino’s Series B round of $32 million. The funding will also provide Arduino with access to a new level of technology with Renesas’ technology portfolio, including MCUs/MPUs, analogue, power, and connectivity products.
This investment is seen as being significant for Renesas as it forms part of its strategy to grow its business in the mass market and reach new customers within Arduino’s community of 30 million developers worldwide.
“We are excited to be part of Arduino’s new strategy and provide them more options by giving access to Renesas’ extensive technology, tools, and customer base,” said Chris Allexandre, Senior Vice President, Head of Sales and Corporate Digital Marketing, IoT and Infrastructure Business Unit at Renesas. “We look forward to working together to accelerate Arduino’s open-source technology and provide engineers in the enterprise easier access to it.”
