Android creator Andy Rubin is launching Playground Global, a company which will provide support and advice to tech startups making devices for consumers or companies, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company will not invest in the start-ups but take equity stakes in return for its support. Playground also plans to help entrepreneurs with distribution, manufacturing, financing and integrate their devices into the cloud.
Rubin said Playground has raised USD 48 million from investors including Google, Hewlett-Packard, Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn), and other companies such as Redpoint Ventures, Tencent Holdings and Seagate Technology.
The founder wants Playground to be a studio, where inventors, tinkerers and entrepreneurs can focus on building new gadgets and not worry about other aspects of running a business. Rubin worked at Apple in the early 1990s and then at Apple-backed General Magic. After a stint at online video startup WebTV, he founded Danger in 1999 to make an early smartphone called the Sidekick. He founded Android in 2004 and sold it to Google the following year. Mr. Rubin believes that large technology ecosystems, such as the Web and mobile, emerge about once every 20 years. “Hardware will drive future ecosystems,” he said.
