This Company Wants To Be The Lego Of The Internet

NEW YORK — Joachim Horn’s refrigerator is probably smarter than yours. Sensors inside of it tell him how much remains of particular foods, so he knows what recipes he can make with what he has at home.

Horn was able to upgrade his fridge thanks to SAM Labs, the company he founded in 2013. The six-person London-based startup makes a variety of “blocks” — small buttons, lights, buzzers or sensors — which link wirelessly together via your computer. People can use the blocks to connect everyday objects with a network, making their stuff more intelligent and, in theory, more useful.

“We’re the Lego for the Internet generation,” Horn told The Huffington Post.

Mayor Johnson is on a trade mission to the United States until Friday.

“We think that London is going absolutely gangbusters now as far as tech of all kinds is concerned,” Johnson said at a panel during the event. U.S. investors poured nearly $800 million into tech companies in London last year, up from $296 million in 2012, according to London Partners, the city’s official promotional company.

The mayor said there are more people working in tech in London than who work in all of financial services there. “It’s the biggest change in the London economy since the Industrial Revolution,” he said.

The Huffington Post