ABB Group, and industrial giant, has purchased Eve Systems, a maker of connected switches, plugs and sensors that work with Thread, HomeKit, and Matter. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the deal has been in works for at least the last six or seven months, said Jerome Gackel, CEO of Eve. I can’t tell if this deal is the end of the original wave of smart home companies or the beginning of the wave of smart energy becoming mainstream. Let’s call it both.
Eve was founded in 1999, but turned to focus on smart home gear solely back in 2018 when it sold its Elgato gaming accessories business. Eve historically built sensors, plugs, switches and more for Apple’s HomeKit ecosystem, but with the release of the Matter smart home interoperability standard, it was able to branch out. As an Android user I got my first Eve device working using only my phone just last month. It’s also one of the few original independent smart home home companies standing.
Many of the companies I started covering a decade or so ago when starting up in this space have been purchased by larger companies. In 2013-2015 there were a wave of deals sparked by Google’s massive overpayment for Nest and acquisition of Dropcam. And a few years after that we saw a few deals by larger companies (Le Grand, Assa Abloy, Resideo) picking up smart home companies at relatively restrained prices relative to the hoped-for valuations.
Today, I can think of only a few independent smart home startups, and it’s pretty rare to encounter new investments in that sector. There’s Nanoleaf, Hubitat, Sengled, Allterco Robotics/Shelly, Meross, and likely a few others I can’t recall at the moment. Both Hubitat and Meross are the youngest of this crop of companies, founded in 2016.
This lack of new innovation of investment in the smart home makes total sense. Adoption of smart home technology has plateaued. Data from Parks Associates indicates that the top reason people won’t buy a smart home device is that they don’t feel like it offers value. The second reason is high prices and the third is a concern over companies spying on their data. If you can’t convince people that these devices are going to improve their lives, it’s a big lift to market items as mundane as light bulbs, light switches and thermostats to consumers.
Matter was supposed to change all of this, by removing confusion in the purchasing process and by making it easier to link devices together, showing how they can add value in a home. So far this isn’t working. Which leaves the industry focused on services. And given the trifecta of challenges related to delivering energy to homes, one of the most compelling services the smart home can offer is energy management or smart energy.
In the last two years climate change, a need for incorporating renewables into the grid, and whole-home electrification have helped drive investments in a new startups such as Span, Lumin, and Quilt, while also driving acquisitions of some existing smart home startups such as Ecobee (acquired by Generac). ABB is positioning this deal as a way to help manage energy consumption in buildings, and Eve’s products can certainly act as part of that process.
However, Eve’s devices aren’t the big ones that utilities are generally interested in, because smart plugs and light switches aren’t the items that are consuming the most power in homes. Despite this, I do think ABB’s positioning of the deal is a signal for other startups building products designed for smart energy management. There is interest from big companies in smart home technology that can help position buyers as leaders in smart energy. Even smaller companies trying to transition from smart home to smart energy like Savant is, may seek startups to buy.
Sure, this deal looks more like Legrand’s purchase of Netamo back in 2018, but by focusing on smart energy, ABB is clearly indicating that companies playing in the connected home should shift their focus if they want to attract interest from investors and buyers. This acquisition should close within the next 100 days, said Lucy Han, EVP, ABB Building & Home Automation Solutions. Eve will also continue to operate separately within ABB.
I just posted over on the SmartThings community forum about this. I agree with your analysis and the focus on energy, but I’d go even further and say I doubt if ABB is interested in the individual Eve devices at all. I don’t think ABB makes any direct to consumer products, do they? Everything is commercial or industrial.
This feels like a buzzword acquisition, like when Samsung bought smartthings. ABB wants to be able to say they are a leader in Matter and Thread, I doubt if they actually want the Eve products. The closest they come is their solar energy inverters, and even those are typically professionally installed.
https://new.abb.com/news/detail/29181/prosumers-supported-with-abb-smart-energy-storage-solutions
I’m not saying they’re going to kill the eve line, they’ll let it run as an independent division, so they can continue to get the buzzword advantage. But individual consumer devices sold at retail for under $100 are not going to be their highest corporate priority.
It’s not a weird acquisition, because I understand why ABB would want it, but I don’t think it’s going to bring great benefits to individual consumers.
Oh no, bye bye Eve. It was good while it lasted. Some of the most reliable smart home devices in my home. I’ve been burned already by smart home device makers going broke or selling out (rip Nest Smoke Detectors and Nest Cams and Ring.) The money is not in consumer sales, it’s in giant multi-national conglomerates forcing monitoring and controlling devices on all of their renters.
A friend of mine who is German pointed out to me that Busch-Jaeger, a 140 year old German brand that does offer direct to consumer smart lighting systems, including some friends of hue Zigbee green power devices, was acquired as a division by ABB more than 60 years ago. Busch-Jaeger operates as a standalone division, and is itself a member of the CSA. So the umbrella company does have some experience with direct to consumer devices, and if eve is operated on the same business structure as Busch-Jaeger it might then continue to offer the same kind of product line as it does now.
https://csa-iot.org/member/busch-jaeger-elektro/
Great read, Stacey!
I agree, with the expansion of electrification, one of the most compelling services the smart home can offer is energy management or smart energy. And any offering has to improve the lives of users.
Yet, I would add that what we are doing at Whisker Labs with Ting – as an independent company 🙂 – addresses a foundational layer in the promise of truly smart energy. And is even more compelling given the impact on loss prevention (lives and property).
Efficiency and control will continue to be important; however, safety and resiliency in delivery and usage hold greater importance. The ability to detect an emerging hazard and react to prevent a dreadfully harmful event – and employ that data to help improve standards, policies, and investment decisions – is both compelling and paramount.
Thank you for your continued excellent and insightful coverage of the industry!