Control4 announces the acquisition of Switzerland-based NEEO, creators of the acclaimed smart home remote, in order to further boost the development of remotes, touchpanels, keypads and other smart home devices.
Launched via the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform in 2015, the NEEO remote offers simple setup, out-of-the-box interoperability with 1000s of devices and a striking design complete with both a large touchscreen and physical buttons. Based in Bern, the NEEO product team has been led by founder Raphael Oberholzer, and will be working with the Control4 engineering group on the development of next-gen Control4 remote controls and touchpanels. Oberholzer takes a leadership role in the development of interaction devices, reporting to SVP products & services Charlie Kindel.
“Raphael built a world-class customer-centric product team with proven strengths in industrial design, product development and user experience. We’re keen to add NEEO’s unique expertise and award-winning Swiss design ethic to enhance our plans for reimagining the way homeowners interact with their Control4 systems,” Control4 says. “The NEEO acquisition is a talent and technology investment that will yield beautifully-designed and deeply integrated products in the future. We’re excited to welcome the NEEO team to the Control4 family."
So far NEEO has sold remotes directly to customers, but it will end such distribution post-acquisition. Control4 will continue to support existing NEEO customers, and plans to offer an upgrade path to make it easy for customers to move to Control4 smart home solutions.