Marc Dillon Takes CEO Role At Smarter Mobile Charger Startup, Asmo

Former Jolla co-founder Marc Dillon has a new job in hardware: Finnish startup Asmo, which has been crowdfunding a mobile charger that switches off automatically when the device is fully charged, has today named Dillon as its new CEO.

The Asmo charger, which aims to reduce electricity wastage and bolster safety with an automatic fix for the problem of mobile chargers being routinely left plugged in, launched as a crowdfunder last summer. It went on to raise more than $90,000 via the Indiegogo platform — funding that’s since been tripled by founder funding, private investment and government entrepreneurial funds to put towards R&D.

The original scheduled shipping deadline of October 2015 for Asmo has slipped by several months. It’s now saying it’s “finalizing the manufacturing” and will announce a delivery date “soon”. Prior to hiring Dillon, founder Asmo Saloranta notes he was working on the project alone — hence bringing in some seasoned mobile hardware expertise at this juncture.

“Now we have the team to deliver to our backers and customers,” says Saloranta in a statement.

Since leaving Jolla last fall, Dillon has worked with another crowdfunding campaign — although the Unseen Art project, which was aiming to make famous artworks accessible to blind and partially sighted people as tactile 3D objects that could be downloaded as 3D files and printed via a 3D printer, failed to achieve its $50,000 funding target.

His prior crowdfunder, the Jolla Tablet, did smash its funding goal but shipment of the slate has been long delayed and it has since hit the rocks in another sense: Jolla this week confirmed it is killing the tablet.

Only around 540 units will now ship to backers, starting from this month, with the rest due to get refunds — although the refund process may take up to a year. Dillon had left Jolla prior to the company announcing the funding difficulties that ultimately led to the tablet being derailed.