Weaved, Kii, and Astak announced a partnership to release the world’s first IP-camera platform, miniMole, with a wholesale distribution model, open API-based SDK, and online developer portal. The partnership combines three powerhouses in the Internet of Things (IoT) space. Weaved is a pioneer in IoT connectivity services, Astak is a leader in consumer and industrial connected cameras and Kii is the only cloud-based mobile backend provider that powers IoT applications.

“Weaved has a mission to drive the industry towards interconnected devices,” said Ryo Koyama, CEO of Weaved. “With the hyper-growth in the smart camera market, the miniMole platform is built to enable device manufacturers and service providers to offer compelling solutions for businesses and consumers, while leveraging the skills of developers to create powerful apps on an open API platform.”

The unique combination of hardware, software and cloud services offers a complete solution for device manufacturers and service providers to increase upsell revenue by adding IP-camera functionality to their products.

Third-party app developers will also get an open platform to create value-added, connected camera apps.

This includes functionality such as cloud DVR services with event timelines, advanced audio, motion detection triggers, alarm filters, analytics, and integration with other 3rd party Apps.

Additionally, the platform has device discovery, user authentication, secured peer-to-peer and relay connections over the Internet, low-latency live streaming video and audio services.

“We are pleased to partner with Weaved and Kii to offer the miniMole IP camera as the first consumer- and business-connected camera with an open API and developer portal,” said Simon Wang, Vice President of Marketing & Sales for Astak. “Just as we saw third parties, like Instagram and SnapChat, create compelling new user experiences by leveraging the smartphones’ underlying camera hardware and open camera APIs, we expect to see some amazing new applications emerge for miniMole. These new capabilities and features will take advantage of our camera hardware and cloud services from Weaved.”

The connected IP-camera market is expected to exceed 20 million units in 2014 for professional security and surveillance, as well as consumer home/pet/child/elder monitoring.

In addition, there are multiple camera market segments showing impressive growth such as action cams, consumer 360-degree view cameras, doorbell cams, car dashboard cams, battery powered cameras, and even wearable cameras.

Many cameras today are offered with bundled cloud services for event-triggered recording, live viewing, and camera control over the Internet via a mobile device app.

Kii and Weaved are members of AllSeen Alliance, an open source consortium, whose mission is to driving the adoption of Internet of Things.

“There is an incredible opportunity for device manufacturers and service providers to offer smart security solutions for consumers and businesses, whether as a new offering or for upselling to legacy security products,” said Masanari Arai, CEO of Kii. “The trifecta of Weaved, Kii and Astak is helping them utilize this opportunity with a powerful solution that brings together hardware, software and cloud services.”

The open miniMole platform will be entering Beta this summer and early adopters are invited to join the program.

Beta developers will receive miniMole hardware and have access to the Beta SDK and open APIs to access the Weaved cloud services. The developer portal will feature a tool chain, code base, and documentation.