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RYSE Raised Over $3 Million in Phase One of Community Round

We are excited to announce that we have raised over $3.5M this past year from hundreds of investors!

When we launched our $1/share Community Round, our primary objective was to raise capital in order to scale our distribution into retail, and we are proud to say that later this year we will have achieved this goal.

While acquiring a retail distribution deal is often the most difficult step, we also recognize that scaling retail sales volumes is no walk in the park.

To achieve our goal of making RYSE synonymous with SmartShades, we must continue to invest in sales, marketing and R&D for new products.

It’s an exciting time to be an investor in RYSE, and we will be providing more news about this new round as it becomes available.

Webinar: RYSE Discusses The Patents That Make It a Strong Acquisition Target

On July 19th, 2023 RYSE hosted a webinar for all shareholders and potential investors to discuss the 7 powerful patents that they currently hold on their technology. Trung does a deep dive on the patents and the importance they hold for the future of the company, specifically why they make RYSE a strong candidate as an acquisition target.

In the webinar some of the topics discussed include:

  • What Intellectual Property do we hold that makes us different from the competition and an attractive target for an acquisition?
  • What role do patents play in the acquisitions of startups?
  • How could the patents affect returns for early investors?

We highly encourage that you watch the recording of our webinar that dives deep into these topics, and provides clarity on what it is that investors are actually investing in.

The recording is just over 15 minutes long, and you can watch it below.

RYSE Lands Its First Educational Facility Customer

We are excited to announce that we have just signed our first educational facility customer, and we will be delivering 50+ SmartShades along with battery packs and Bluetooth buttons, as part of their active shooter budget.

In the event of an active shooter situation, window shades retrofitted with our technology can be remotely activated by the teachers, providing an immediate barrier between potential harm and the children.

Additionally, the closed shades will make the room dark, giving the appearance of an empty room from the outside. This small but vital measure can buy crucial time for students and staff, enabling them to find safety while authorities respond to the situation.

The reason why our devices are preferred over other options is that motorized shades can malfunction, but other solutions don’t have a manual override. In a worst-case scenario, RYSE SmartShades can quickly be removed so that the shade can be used manually.

While automated window shades alone cannot prevent or eliminate such tragic incidents, we are honored to play a role, no matter how small, in enhancing the overall safety measures within educational environments.

Webinar: RYSE Does a Deep Dive on The Most Successful Exits in the Smart Home Industry

On June 29th, 2023 RYSE hosted a webinar to discuss the most successful smart home products, and the acquisitions that are becoming more and more prevalent in our industry.

We discussed acquisitions in our industry, and took an in-depth look at what makes smart home products successful.

The acquisitions and successful exits of RingNestEcobee, and other smart-home companies are well known. Less well known are the struggles and the problems that these companies had to overcome in order to achieve wide-spread adoption of their products.

We’ve studied these cases thoroughly and have incorporated factors that have been integral to their success in our products and strategy.

If you missed the webinar, you an watch the recording at the link below:

RYSE Launches on BestBuy Online

Today marks an important milestone in our journey, and I am extremely excited to announce that our products are now being sold on Best Buy’s online store!

Best Buy has been an early believer in the potential of smart-home products and have established themselves as a leader in product distribution and education for the industry.

The RYSE SmartShade is one of the first products to be listed in their stores in the smart shade category!

This is just the beginning. We have signed a deal with Best Buy that will get our product stocked in over 100 brick-and-mortar Best Buy stores this year!

We are excited to have made the first step in a long partnership that will bring our products and the ability to easily automate window shades to the masses.

RYSE Went Live on QVC Network

RYSE is launching on QVC!

On Thursday March 25 from 4:00PM – 6:00PM (EST), we are going to be featured on the QVC shopping network in a segment titled Accessible Living.

This is an incredible opportunity for us to showcase our product to over 100 million households, and let the world know that there is an affordable and convenient method to automating window shades!

QVC has been around for 40 years, serving as a transformative vehicle for entrepreneurs and startups. A 10-minute spot on QVC was enough to turn a cosmetics company founder from selling product out of her tiny studio apartment, to selling over $100M a year!

We are extremely excited to be featured, and invite you to tune in to our segment on the QVC Shopping Network next week.

RYSE Signed an Exclusive Distribution Deal with Soltech

RYSE is officially expanding to the UK!

We have signed an exclusive distribution deal with Soltech in the United Kingdom, for B2B sales to commercial and multi-family buildings.

For 35 years, Soltech has been a leader in providing blinds, curtains and automated solutions for an array of customers, from multinational brands, to private clients and individuals.

We are in the process of shipping their first shipment of SmartShades & accessories, so that they can bring shade automation solutions to their clients!

Managing Director of Soltech, Guy Simmonds, is very optimistic on the potential for our products in the UK market!

“Soltech are very excited to partner with RYSE to bring the SmartShade family of products to the UK market. The prevalence of manually operated blinds, and the increasing recognition that motorization is a significant tool in building control means the opportunity is almost limitless.

The convenience of automation for homeowners, and a simple upgrade in commercial buildings to help achieve energy goals. We’ll be working with both new and existing clients to introduce the products and establish routes to market.”

Guy Simmonds
Managing Director, Soltech

This is the first of many relationships that we expect to close in the European market this year.

Along with the UK, the Nordics present a very attractive opportunity for RYSE, with their high rate of smart home product adoption.

RYSE Launches on Republic

We are pleased to announce that our investment offering is now being feature on Republic!

Republic is a private investing platform for investors seeking high growth potential. They curate and conduct significant due diligence on all of the opportunities that they feature, so we are very excited to have been approved to launch on their platform.

Here are the highlights from our deal.

If you’ve been waiting for RYSE to list on one of the most popular pre-IPO investment platforms, now’s your chance to invest!

RYSE Receives European Patent Approval for Technology

We are extremely excited to announce that we have just been issued a new European patent!

This new patent – that has already been issued in in other markets such as US, Canada and China – covers our core product:

The control of a window shade with a continuous cord loop by a drive system that can be operated by:

  • Machine Control (ie. schedule/automation)
  • User Control (ie. buttons, mobile control)
  • Manual Operation (ie. pulling the chain)

The approval of this patent comes just in time, as we set our sights on the European Market which has some of the highest smart-home product penetration rates in the world!

Global expansion is one of our main goals for 2023, and having patent protection in the countries with high smart-home product adoption is critical.

The patent for our new SmartCurtain product has also recently been filed, and our goal is to remain at the forefront of innovation when it comes to affordable, high-quality, DIY solutions to automate window coverings.

Industry News – Vivant Smart Home Acquired by NRG Energy for $2.8 Billion

Exciting things are happening in our industry: earlier this week, Vivint Smart-Home was acquired by NRG Energy Inc. for a massive $2.8 billion!

Vivint Smart-Home is a North American smart-home company with a portfolio of products including smart cameras, doorbells and locks. NRG Energy is an energy conglomerate and they acquired Vivint at a price of $12/share, reflecting about a 33% premium to the closing share price the day before!

As we have iterated many times before, our industry is consolidating, and we’re confident that our solutions would fit perfectly within the portfolio of smart-home company acquirers.