Thorley Industries, a Pittsburgh developer of baby products, has a few new additions to the family. The firm has announced a strategic investment by Newell Rubbermaid, an Atlantic consumer products firm, and is preparing a nationwide launch of mamaRoo, a high-tech moving baby seat, on April 30.
Thorley will market the mamaRoo, a device that imitates the real motions mothers use to soothe their babies, under its 4Moms brand name. The engineering team at 4Moms, all graduates of Carnegie Mellon Universitys robotics program, designed a robotics platform for motion control software that creates controlled lateral motion in two dimensions–up and down and side to side. The devices movements are patterned on those of mothers who wore sensors to track and store their movements. The ultra high-tech result includes an LED touch screen and an iPod port. Made in China, it will retail for $199.99 through major outlets like BabiesRUs, Target, and Amazon, as well as specialty retailers in the U.S. and Canada.
Thorley is on a roll. It won a 2008 Juvenile Products Marketing Associations Innovation Award for the mamaRoo in September, the fourth such honor for the firm since its founding in 2005. It is expanding its Pittsburgh staff from 11 to 16 in the next 90 days, with three new hires in robotics engineering. CEO Rob Daley declined to give the amount of the Newell Rubbermaid investment, but says the firm would place a representative on the five-member Thorley board as part of the deal.
The four-year-old firm is developing more products for young children. We still have a lot of runway in the juvenile space, says Daley, adding that long-term plans extend to other home goods.
Source: Rob Daley, Thorley Industries
Writer: Chris OToole
