Board: Revolutionizing Together Technology with a $20 Million Boost
Board, the three-year-old New York startup building what it calls “together technology” — technology designed to bring people physically into the same room — has closed a $20 million Series A round led by Union Square Ventures.
Michael Mignano Joins the Board of Directors
General Partner Michael Mignano, in his first investment since joining USV, will join the company’s board of directors. The round also attracted famous angel investors, including Biz Stone, Tim Ferriss and Scott Belsky.
From Mirror to Board: Brynn Putnam’s Vision
The raise comes about eight months after founder Brynn Putnam — who previously sold connected fitness startup Mirror to Lululemon for $500 million — publicly revealed Board at TechCrunch Disrupt last October.
The Innovative $399 Board Device
The $399 Board device is a 24-inch touchscreen in a wooden frame that uses proprietary technology to recognize physical game pieces, combining the tactile feel of board games with the interactivity of video games.
Strong Market Traction and Customer Engagement
Traction since launch has been strong, the company says: Board is now in tens of thousands of homes, schools, hospitals, and restaurants in all 50 states, with 85% of customers averaging 30 or more gaming sessions per month.
Introducing Board Studio: AI-Powered Game Creation
Along with the funding, Board announced Board Studio, an AI-powered creation platform launching later this year that will allow anyone to create original games using natural language prompts – from idea to playable prototype in less than an hour, it says.
Lerer Hippeau’s Continued Support
Board had already raised $15 million in funding led by venture capital firm Lerer Hippeau, which also led Mirror’s $3 million seed round years earlier. It’s a gamble that paid off handsomely when Putnam sold the connected fitness company to Lululemon in 2020.
Personal Insight from Brynn Putnam
Putnam sees Board as a natural extension of what she learned about mainstream hardware while creating Mirror. “Mirror talked about me a lot,” she once told TechCrunch. “It was my thinking, my performance, it was about improving yourself. In this next phase, my life was really much more focused on my family, my friends and my relationships.”
The Shift in Consumer Technology
The result is a product built around the simple but increasingly popular idea that the best use of technology might be to get people to put down their devices and look at themselves.
The increase comes at a time when consumer technology, long out of favor with investors, is showing signs of rebounding, thanks in large part to what AI now makes possible.
A New Era for Consumer Investments
“I’m more excited about the consumer than I’ve been in a long time,” Ben Lerer, managing partner of Lerer Hippeau, said late last year during another meeting with TechCrunch. “We’re seeing a group of really high-quality founders saying, ‘Now is the time to get back in the pool.’ There are things that are possible today that were not possible six months or a year ago, and the slope is steep.”
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