With the emergence of Matter as the interoperability standard for the smart home, and now the availability of new AI-enabled apps and platforms to manage those systems, the opportunity in that space have never been bigger. One problem essentially remains, as Athom has painfully learned in its 10 years in business, is that very few consumers understand the need for what they offer and certainly don't want to deal with the problem of configuring and supervising a smart home network. AI brings the promise to remove the need for a learning process from the user front-end, while accelerating the convergence between the multiple systems and protocols that remain.
LG plans to integrate Athom's extensive connectivity – which links thousands of appliances, sensors and lighting devices – with its generative AI-enabled LG ThinQ platform. This integration aims to create an AI home with deeper understanding of the user, with the platform being able to manage appliances and connected devices to create a personalized environment tailored to their preferences. LG also envisions expanding the differentiated user experience of AI homes to various spaces, such as commercial spaces and mobility environments, ultimately realizing and advancing the concept of "Intelligent Space."
LG offers the global scale and industrial might to turn the original vision that inspired Athom to get into the smart home market, and create Homey, its smart home hub and software platform that connects all devices. Athom was founded by Emile Nijssen and Stefan Witkamp, which launched a successful Kickstarter campaign from The Netherlands in 2014, both fresh from the university, and both aged 22, with no idea of the journey ahead. They managed to manufacture and ship products in 2015, leading to further investment rounds that sustained the company in the next stage of growth.
The Homey App Store, managed by Athom, offers around 1,000 applications for connecting and controlling home devices from brands such as Philips Hue and IKEA. Many of these applications are based on official partnerships, alongside a large number of apps developed by the Homey community. This community of developers actively contributes to Athom's open platform, continuously expanding the range of brands and devices that can be connected to the hub. Users can easily create a smart home environment by downloading apps from the store and linking their devices.
Of course, with a customer base of hundreds of thousands of users, Athom believed they could sustain their model with cloud subscription services until, they realized the need to make the service Free and fund Homey with hardware sales. Homey devices are available in Australia, Singapore, the US and Canada, in addition to Europe.
LG is poised to significantly enhance the scalability required for implementing Athom's vision, removing the pain of dealing with manufacturing and supply chains challenges (which hit Athom particularly hard during the global pandemic years), and allowing the company the focus to achieve the highest industry standards. According to LG, this will be accomplished by integrating its LG ThinQ platform's smart home technology with Athom's open ecosystem and device connectivity. For LG, the acquisition of Athom is particularly noteworthy, as it will enable LG to incorporate third-party devices and services into its ecosystem.
"The acquisition of Athom is a cornerstone for our AI home business," says Jung Ki-hyun, executive vice president and head of LG's Platform Business Center. "By leveraging the synergy between the two companies, we will expand our open ecosystem and external integration services, aiming to provide customers with more diverse and multidimensional space experiences."
Even after the acquisition, Athom will continue to operate independently, maintaining its business operations and branding. This strategy is designed to maximize Athom's growth potential and unique strengths while fostering synergies in business, research and development capabilities, and platform utilization.
LG's introduction of the AI home, which integrates Athom's open smart home platform with its own AI technology, underscores the company's commitment to expand its hardware-focused strategy also to a software-based platform business. In 2021, LG expanded its TV business to software by entering the TV platform market with its webOS platform. To support this shift, LG acquired Alphonso, a US-based global technology company specializing in television media, machine learning and big-data analytics. Alphonso now operates as LG Ad Solutions, a core component of the webOS content and service business.
"LG is evolving into an intelligent space solutions company that connects and expands experiences in various living spaces. We will continue to make strategic investments to shift our business paradigm, as evidenced by our successive entries into platform-based appliance services and solutions such as the webOS advertising platform and AI home," says William Cho, CEO of LG Electronics.
www.homey.app
www.LG.com
