With Johnson & Johnson's vote; India's Ray IoT takes baby monitor to CES

Ray IoT was the 1st Indian start-up to enter Chinese hardware accelerator HAX, reports Tech in Asia

Three months ago, Ray IoT became the first Indian start-up to enter Shenzhen-based hardware accelerator HAX. Today the Bangalore-based start-up announces another first: backing from one of the world’s biggest makers of baby products, Johnson & Johnson.

Ray IoT’s first product is a device to monitor sleeping babies. It lets parents know on their mobile devices if their baby is sleeping well, if it has rolled over, and if it’s breathing normally. Unlike other baby monitors, it doesn’t touch the baby, so it’s non-intrusive.

Raybaby, as it’s called, will have its first public display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) starting Thursday in Las Vegas. After CES, the start-up goes to San Francisco where HAX will have its demo day on January 10. And finally at month-end, Raybaby will launch on Kickstarter.

Ray IoT CEO and co-founder Ranjana Nair is excited to have the support of both HAX and the American multinational. "Johnson & Johnson is a household name in India. The first gift you think of buying for a newborn baby in India is the J&J baby hamper," she points out.

Johnson & Johnson invests billions of dollars on its own R&D but is also looking for innovation from outside now. "We have found out the hard way every now and then that if you try to do everything, it doesn’t work," says John Bell, VP for external innovation and new business models at J&J.

Ray IoT has also gained from being in China’s Silicon Valley of hardware, Shenzhen. "You're surrounded by great technology everywhere you look," co-founder Aardra Kannan Ambili told Tech in Asia in an earlier interview. This article was published on Tech In Asia. You can read it here.