LG Electronics acquires Dutch smart home platform Athom: Know more

LG Electronics announced on Wednesday that it has expanded its presence in the smart home market by acquiring an 80 per cent stake in Athom, the Dutch company behind the Homey smart home platform.

According to the deal, LG will buy the remaining 20 per cent within the next three years. While LG didn’t provide the deal’s exact value, The Korean Economic Daily estimated it to be about 85B won ($61M).

Why the acquisition?

The acquisition will enable LG to integrate Homey’s operating system, connectivity, and partnerships into its product ecosystem, offering seamless connectivity and versatile functionality to LG customers.

This integration is expected to contain a wide range of LG products, empowering them with Homey’s advanced smart home capabilities.

Post-acquisition, Athom will continue to operate as an independent business under its current brand.

Athom’s founders, Stefan Witkamp and Emile Nijssen, will continue as executives within the company, further developing Homey Cloud, and Homey Pro, and expanding the product lineup.

In addition to integrating Homey technology into its products, LG and Athom plan to collaborate on creating unique product synergies.

This includes the integration of LG ThinQ-powered Home Appliances with Homey and joint efforts in the field of Energy Management to deliver enhanced solutions to customers of both companies.

Jung Ki-hyun, executive vice president and head of LG’s Platform Business Center says, “We were very impressed by the technology, platform, and team that Athom has built with Homey. The acquisition of Athom is expected to enhance the value of our core businesses and ultimately serve as a foundation for our smart spaces ecosystem business.”

Athom: Building smart system

Founded in 2014, Athom designs and creates smart devices and software for home automation.

The company created Homey, a smart home product that combines all wireless and smart devices at home into a single, easy-to-use, and smart system.

Since its launch, the company has thousands of users in Europe and it is also available in North America, Singapore, and Australia.

“LG has recently invested heavily in solutions for smart spaces and AI, and we are proud to become part of this innovative, well-performing company,” states Stefan Witkamp, founder and Commercial Director of Athom. “We look forward to working with LG to create better smart home solutions for a growing number of users – through Homey, LG products, or a unique combination of both.”