“Removing complexity is always key to what we are doing.” – NEEO Co-Founder and CEO Raphael Oberholzer
This quote from NEEO Co-Founder and CEO Raphael Oberholzer perfectly exemplifies the mission of his company. While the devices that make up the modern smart home have undoubtedly improved over the years, housing the sheer number of different pieces of technology can result in a jumbled mess for any tech-savvy homeowner. Game consoles, smart speakers, smartphones, tablets, and smart appliances make up just some of the devices of the connected home, with each potentially having their own method of control through specialized applications and remotes.
After 15 years of creating smart home experiences for a litany of customers, Oberholzer wanted to expand to a wider group of users in 2014. He did this by assembling a team of talented engineers that had worked with such innovative companies as Ring, Intel, and Apple. With the mission to make smart home control less complicated, as well as create a more affordable smart home solution, NEEO was born.
With offices in Cupertino, CA, as well as Switzerland, NEEO is rethinking how the smart home is controlled through their sleekly designed, innovative devices – the NEEO Remote and NEEO Brain. These releases from the company work together to put full control of the smart home, from the kitchen and bedroom to the entertainment center, in the palm of your hand.
The Remote, which showcases a straightforward design with minimal buttons and a display screen, can easily play your media, adjust your lighting, and set your room’s temperature without the need to fill your smartphone with apps or search through a mountain of controllers. The Brain, meanwhile, can connect to the Remote and create different smart home “recipes,” scheduling your devices to interact at various times of the day. This can be used for a number of different situations, such as playing music, warming the room, and brightening lights to jumpstart your morning routine. These two devices, which are commonly packaged together as the NEEO Combo, are compatible with more than 60,000 smart and AV devices from a growing number of companies.
The idea to make NEEO devices compatible with as many pieces of tech as possible was in the company’s DNA from the start. According to Oberholzer, “Thanks to a very broad interconnectivity, users have the freedom of choice. The goal was to create a solution that works with new smart home gadgets but also with all the tech users already own … People should not have to struggle with 15 different apps and five different remotes. It should all be one experience.”
Thanks to this mission, NEEO tech is compatible with thousands of devices: Vizio, Sony, Samsung, Xbox, and many more, with the list continuing to grow.
Looking ahead, Oberholzer plans to stay focused on his company’s core product. “We do not intend to build light bulbs, speakers, or anything similar,” he noted. “There are great partners of ours in the market who focus on those categories. I see NEEO continuing to innovate in human interfaces, with new thoughtful products and the evolution of our current offerings.” With this focused approach and advanced smart home tech already on the market, the future for this innovative company will be one to keep an eye on.
