Facebook has acquired California hardware startup Nascent Objects to speed up the production process within its research and development lab Building 8.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Facebook intends to develop hardware products based on its social networking platform at the new lab.
Founded in 2014, Nascent Objects has a platform that features several electronic modules like mini-computers, sensors, camera, and others which can be assembled in a 3D-printed bracket.
The company’s modular consumer electronics platform makes product development faster and easier by combining hardware design, circuitry, 3D printing and modular electronics.
Nascent claims that its technology enables developers to go from concept to product in a matter of weeks, much faster and less expensive when compared to traditional procedures.
Nascent Objects secured an undisclosed amount of funding from investors Orestone Capital and Co-Creation Capital.
Becoming part of Facebook will help Nascent achieve the vision on which it was established, to make hardware production simple and easy.
Nascent Objects CEO Baback Elmieh said: “People have become used to the idea that with software, you can have whatever you want, whenever you want it. We want to make this happen with hardware – and we think Facebook is the best place to make this a reality.
“We look forward to getting started with Facebook!.”
In a Facebook post, Regina Dugan, ex-Google executive who was hired to lead the lab in April this year, said that Nascent Objects is a company that brings a vision of designing, building and delivering a hardware product in just weeks instead of months, or even years.
“Together, we hope to create hardware at a speed that’s more like software,” Dugan said.