Control4 has acquired Switzerland-based NEEO, the creators of the acclaimed smart home remote, to accelerate its leadership in delivering remotes, touch panels, keypads, and other smart home devices.
Introduced in 2016, NEEO’s remote quickly gained industry recognition for its simplistic set up, out-of-box interoperability with thousands of devices, and most notably, its beautifully conceived industrial design. Based in Bern, the NEEO product team has been led by the company’s founder, Raphael Oberholzer, and will be working with the Control4 engineering group in Salt Lake City on the development of the next-generation of Control4 remote controls, touch panels, keypads, and other devices. Oberholzer will take a leadership role in the development of Control4’s interaction devices and will report to Charlie Kindel, Control4 senior vice president, products & services.
“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,” said Martin Plaehn, chairman and CEO, Control4. “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.”
“From the start, it was obvious that both our companies are passionate for customer-centric design,” said Raphael Oberholzer, NEEO founder. “By joining the Control4 team, we can execute our shared vision to accelerate the creation of beautiful products consumers want in their smart home.”
NEEO previously sold its remote to homeowners online but is discontinuing all direct-to-consumer distribution in connection with this transaction. Control4 will support existing NEEO customers via www.neeo.com and plans to provide an upgrade path to make it easy for users to experience Control4’s broad array of smart home solutions.
