The founders Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, David Mellis and Tom Igoe have taken over Arduino AG completely. Dr. Fabio Violante has been appointed as the new CEO, replacing Federico Musto, "who will pursue new opportunities outside of Arduino", according to a press release. Massimo Banzi will take over as CTO and Chairman of Arduino.

"This is the beginning of a new era for Arduino. We are convinced of the open source hardware and software strategy, we want to strengthen and renew it. At the same time, we are putting the company on a solid financial footing for sustainable growth," says Massimo Banzi.

"We want to use the successful Arduino recipe to democratize the Internet of Things by empowering individuals as well as teachers, technicians, engineers and companies to drive developments for the IoT based on Arduino," adds Dr. Fabio Violante.

Broken up and brought back together

In 2014, two companies were created that were in competition: Arduino LLC was led by CEO Massimo Banzi and Arduino SRL was headed by CEO Federico Musto. However, in the fall of 2016, Massimo Banzi and Federico Musto agreed to merge the two companies back into one.

The Arduino Foundation was also founded at that time. Even then, Massimo Banzi said: "With the Arduino Foundation, we can build on the core values of the Arduino community and emphasize our focus on open source. This is a new start for Arduino!" And today, looking back, Fabio Violante explains: "We have worked hard for two years to get here."

The hardware and software around Arduinio allows practically anyone interested to get creative with IoT and develop their own devices and systems. There are virtually no limits to the imagination for makers in areas such as music, games, toys, smart homes, smart farming and agriculture as well as autonomous driving.

The first Arduino board was introduced in 2005. It was intended to help design students who had no experience in electronics or programming controllers to develop working prototypes as quickly as possible, connecting the physical and digital worlds. Today, engineers and large companies also use Arduino as a prototyping tool.