Particle Announced Cellular IoT Platform to Be Powered By Twilio Programmable Wireless

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - May 24, 2016) -  SIGNAL Conference -- Particle, the most popular and easiest-to-use Internet of Things (IoT) platform, today announced its partnership with Twilio, the cloud communications platform for developers at its annual Twilio SIGNAL Conference. Twilio Programmable Wireless, the first communications platform designed for developers to easily program cellular connectivity, will power the Particle Electron and be offered as part of Particle's broader cellular IoT platform.

"Building a cellular-connected IoT product is extremely challenging for about 100 reasons: opaque pricing, complex contract negotiations, certifications and regulations, expensive hardware, and many more." said Zach Supalla, CEO of Particle. "Twilio's approach to IoT SIM cards and data plans is a breath of fresh air, and fits perfectly with Particle's ease-of-use and focus on reducing barriers for IoT product creators."

As part of the partnership, Twilio will provide the SIM cards and data plan that Particle will include in its cellular IoT platform later in 2016. Through simple-to-use APIs, developers and business can now enable a wide range of IoT solutions and customized communications for any device that is connected over the cellular network. The marriage of the two companies creates an easier, more transparent way to get a cellular plan for an Internet of Things product.

"We're very pleased to work with Particle to offer developers a platform for rapid IoT development," said Patrick Malatack, Vice President of Product Management at Twilio, "By putting easy access to both the programmable cellular connectivity and the hardware needed to create IoT, we expect to see IoT solutions that we've only dreamed about until now. We can't wait to see what developers will build." 

Cellular IoT hasn't yet taken off at the same pace as Wi-Fi, largely due to the challenges of negotiating a cellular contract directly with cellular carriers and the many complexities of developing a cellular IoT product. Through this partnership, Particle's goal is to offer IoT developers and companies the ability to connect devices to a cellular network quickly and affordably. Particle's easy-to-use IoT platform coupled with Twilio's flexible and transparent cellular connectivity solution will make cellular connectivity available to a much wider range of companies and products.

To learn more about Particle, visit www.particle.io and to learn more about Twilio, please visit www.twilio.com

About Particle
Particle is a scalable, reliable and secure Internet of Things device platform that enables businesses to quickly and easily build, connect and manage their connected solutions. Particle launched on Kickstarter in 2013 with the vision of making the Internet of Things easy and accessible. Particle's tools are now used by 70,000 engineers in more than 170 countries and are being used by many Fortune 500 companies to develop and manage fleets of new IoT products. Their portfolio includes a cellular platform and cellular hardware development kits including the Electron and Photon. Particle was listed as one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies of 2015 and its CEO, Zach Supalla, has spoken as an authority on the Internet of Things at prominent events such as OSCON, Solid, Web Summit, GMIC, and Launch.

About Twilio
Twilio makes communications easy and powerful. With Twilio's platform, businesses can make communications relevant and contextual by embedding real-time communication and authentication capabilities directly into their software applications. Founded in 2008, Twilio is privately-held and has over 400 employees, with headquarters in San Francisco and other offices in Bogotá, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Mountain View, Munich, New York City, Singapore, and Tallinn.