Facebook just acquired the startup Nascent Objects, a company that will help the social media giant to build and prototype hardware faster.
Facebook Acquires Nascent Objects
The Building 8, a secretive Facebook hardware lab, will receive the small team behind Nascent Objects. The financial details of the deal are not known at the moment. The acquisition has been announced on Monday, Sept. 19, and Recode was the first online publication to report the news.
According to Yahoo Finance, the startup Nascent Objects developed a "modular electronics platform" that help to prototype gadgets faster, by using modern technologies and methods such as 3D printing. Now, Nascent Objects CEO Baback Elmieh has announced the acquisition of his company by the giant social media Facebook in a blog post.
Facebook's Building 8 hardware lab is led by Regina Dugan. Mark Zuckerberg recruited earlier this year Dugan, the former head of Google's advanced technologies team, in order to use her experience to help running Facebook's hardware efforts.
On her Facebook page, Dogan said on Monday that by acquiring Nascent Objects the giant media company hopes to create hardware at a faster speed. She explained that, instead of months or even years, Nascent Objects' platform could help Facebook designing, building and delivering a hardware product in just weeks.
According to Business Insider, in recent months, Dugan's Building 8 team has been staffed by Facebook in a top secret, "DARPA-style." Several experiments have been made public, including hardware projects such as the solar-powered drone Aquila that is designed to beam free internet to areas like sub-Saharan Africa.
According to CNet, Facebook is seriously involved in the hardware business now. Among other hardware projects besides building massive Wi-Fi drones, Facebook works on designing virtual reality googles and building data servers.
Facebook's increasing focus into the hardware business is part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's 10-year plan for the company. Over the next decade the social media company is planning to extend its area of expertise plan in virtual reality, artificial intelligence and internet access, in order to create a more open and connected world.
