Comcast quietly buys IoT startup Stringify for home automation

September 22, 2017

Comcast has quietly purchased Stringify for an undisclosed sum and plans use the Silicon Valley IoT startup’s technology in its Xfinity Home portfolio of products and services.

“Our team joins the fast-growing engineering group at Comcast that develops the technologies behind Xfinity Home and xFi, Comcast’s new and personalized Wi-Fi experience that provides customers unique control of their home networks,” reads a Stringify blog post from earlier this week.

Stringify competes with IoT company If Then Then That (IFTTT), which specializes in sequencing actions so that one triggers another, using conditional statements called applets. According to its Crunchbase profile, Stringify is based in Los Gatos, California, and has gathered $6.3 million in venture capital through one round of funding. The company was founded in 2014 and has less than 50 employees.

“Comcast is a perfect fit for Stringify. With xFi and Xfinity Home, Comcast is delivering elegant, powerful IoT and automation experiences to millions of customers,” Stringify said in its statement. “The Comcast team shares our passion for using technology to solve real-world problems, and to connect the world in meaningful ways.”

Comcast won’t let investors know just how much revenue its home automation and security business is pulling in these days.

The cable company recently indicated that the five-year-old division now has 1 million customers.

Comcast closed its purchase of iControl Networks earlier this year, a deal that enables it to license its home automation to Cox Communications, Rogers Communications and other North American cable operators.