Facebook Acquires Young Startup That Makes Modular Electronic Hardware

It seems Facebook is really serious about its hardware goals with its latest acquisition of Nascent Objects, a startup that creates modular hardware for all electronic needs. This is a significant addition to a company that primarily gets its income via ads through the social media side of things.

Nascent Objects was created in 2014, Tech Crunch reports and it offers modular systems for end users to create their custom hardware. They’re basically like Legos, except they are actually useful. Users get a modular platform, regardless of what that may be, and they can proceed to swap or add parts as they see fit.

The startup actually worked with Ammunition before it was acquired by the social media site, which in turn helped design Beats products. However, Nascent has yet to make a major impact in the electronics industry.

In terms of its role at Facebook, the startup will become part of the lab force at what the social media company calls Building 8. The VP of Engineering at the division, Regina Dugan actually posted a video on her Facebook account, talking about the newest members.

As CNET notes, however, Facebook has been really active in the hardware industry over the last few years. Aside from the virtual reality hardware company that it has, called Oculus, which created the Oculus Rift headset, the social media site is also building massive drones to provide internet connection to the rest of the world.

Conceivably, the reason behind the acquisition of Nascent could have less to do with creating modular hardware for the end user and more for Facebook’s various future endeavors. Having drones that can be easily modified in a few minutes instead of hours would be a huge boost to the social network’s capabilities, for example. Oculus could also end up offering headsets or peripherals which are highly customizable to fit the needs of the users.