Twinkly Story - How a bright Christmas lights idea turned into a magical reality

A couple of years ago, with Christmas approaching, we were sitting on a sofa in our living room, surrounded by wreaths, ornaments, stockings, lights.We were staring at the giant tree in front of us, thinking about our daily duties, our jobs and our passions.

Suddenly, we became obsessed with an idea: applying the latest technology to traditional decorations.
And you know what happens in those moments, when you have an intuition? On one hand, you think it is just crazy, while on the other you already feel it’s energy and you are in a limbo between embracing or leaving it…
Well, we said to ourselves: let’s do it!

In the following months, we found a technology that we immediately understood it could be the starting point of our project and that still plays that role in our company today.
We developed a prototype of a special light chain and we launched a Kickstarter campaign to test our idea and try to turn it into something that anyone could enjoy.

Our product is based on three pillars.

Firstly our lights, that are not as common as you might think. Every Twinkly LED contains three new generation RGB LEDs and a chip that’s able to connect with a single string to the controller. Each light is surrounded by a protective body, specifically designed with a flat head and an opaque layer to intensify the light effects. Therefore, we could create the most brilliant and sophisticated light effects ever.

Secondly, our app. We produced a tiny controller where we placed 2GB of flash memory and a Wi-Fi module, making it possible to control the light from any connected device through our innovative and easy to use app.

Thirdly, the system that makes the smartphone camera understand where the lights are placed: this way anyone can control each of them, one by one.

The campaign reached its goal and made our dream come true! We are still thankful to those 297 backers who were the first ones to believe in our project.

This year we have worked hard to make our start-up grow, the above-mentioned computer vision technology has become a patent and we are now ready to bring to the market a redesigned product, with new features and endless opportunities of customization. We found partners and suppliers everywhere in the world and you can now find Twinkly on the biggest online stores and in the coolest department stores.