Helium Nabs $16 Million in Funding, Names Former Qualcomm Exec Chandhok as President

Well, that didn’t take long.

After leaving Qualcomm last week, Rob Chandhok has now joined Helium, a San Francisco-based Internet of Things startup. Chandhok had been the driving force behind Qualcomm’s IoT efforts, including its push to make its AllJoyn technology a widely adopted standard for connected products.

Chandhok said that Helium will work with those making Internet-connected devices both for the consumer and business markets. The company is now building a test network in San Francisco and will have products on the market next year. Helium will work with multiple networks and standards, with its selling points being both simplicity and a technical approach that can scale well.

“Whether you are a maker or a big company, when you want to connect something you want it to just work,” Chandhok said in an interview.

In addition to announcing Chandhok’s hiring, Helium said it has closed $16 million in Series A funding, led by Khosla Ventures.

The company, which has about 20 employees, has posted some of the technical details of its approach on its website.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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