Nucleus Smart Home Intercom

Nucleus is a connected home device that lets families have two-way audio and video conversations in the home, between homes, or with any iOS or Andriod smartphone. Jonathan Frankel, 31, is the Lower Merion-based CEO of hardware startup Nucleus, where his team is building what he calls a voice-activated, “frictionless” version of Skype. It takes a fraction of a second (touting <200 milliseconds, to be excact) to connect with another user of the Nucleus device. 

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Nucleus has raised a total of $3.63 million, most recently from a $1.75 million round led by Foxconn with participation from San Francisco’s FF Angels. Earlier this year, it closed a $1.875 million round, led by Anthiem Ventures, a family fund in New York. The city’s StartUp PHL angel fund, run by First Round Capital’s Josh Kopelman, also invested $100,000. Other investors include Jerry Kestenbaum, the New York-based founder and CEO of BuildingLink.com, and friends and family, who invested $250,000. The investments were all equity, except for the friends and family ones, which were convertible debt.

According to the site, Nucleus is more than just video calling. Because Nucleus is custom-designed for communication — and not multi-purpose like a computer or smart phone — its core features are stronger, and more reliable, and simpler than other communication applications. Its speed is unparalleled: in a single voice command or at the touch of a finger, you are connected in fewer than 200 milliseconds.

And more importantly, Nucleus is designed for use in situations where Skype or Facetime wouldn’t be used: to call your family down to dinner; to tell your teenage son to get up for school; or to be accessed from a mobile app so that you can instantly tell your spouse that you’re outside in the car.

Some of the features are:

• Voice activation
• Works with other smart home technologies – Nucleus works with Nest, SmartThings, iControl, and Insteon devices, right out of the box
• Privacy settings – including a privacy shutter
• Security system – Equipped with motion-detection and night-vision through its 5MP, 120-degree wide-angle HD camera
• Baby monitor
• Music player – built-in podcast player – stream from existing libraries