Lighthouse turns off the lights on its AI security camera; offers refunds to customers

Lighthouse, a startup company that created an advanced security camera, and was financially backed by the co-founder of Android, is ironically turning off its own lights. In a message on its website, Lighthouse CEO Alex Teichman confirmed that the company was closing its doors after this news was first reported by The Information.

The company was first founded in 2015 and received about $20 million in funding. One of its backers was Playground Global, the venture fund incubator co-created by Andy Rubin, the co-founder of Android. He later became the founder of Essential, which has had its own issues with selling its debut product, the Essential Phone.

The Lighthouse security camera was promoted as using its own proprietary 3D technology that, combined with AI coding, allowed it to more accurately see and map its surroundings. In our own hands-on demo of the camera, we noted some nice features such as the ability to set up notifications for specific alerts from the camera.

Unfortunately, it looks like Lighthouse’s camera had at least a couple of things going against it. One is that the security camera industry is highly competitive, with products like Ring, Nest, and others claiming a lot of the market share. The other problem was that the Lighthouse camera was very expensive at about $300, which means it cost much more than its competition.

In his farewell message, Teichman admitted that “we did not achieve the commercial success we were looking for.” The good news is that if you bought a Lighthouse camera, you will likely be able to get a refund. The company’s support page states that it will accept refund requests if you bought the camera directly from the Lighthouse site, or via Amazon or HSN. If that’s the case, you have until Jan. 25, 2019 to send in your request.