‘Strategic Investors’ Lead $25M Funding Round for Control4

Control4, developer of home automation products for the mass market, is raising $25 million in its latest round of funding, according to an SEC filing dated January 31.

Of that, $15 million has already been raised.

WIREDvc reported the news today, but erroneously claimed that three earlier investors -- Frazier Technology Ventures, vSpring Capital and Thomas Weisel Venture Partners – participated in this round.

In fact, Control4 tells CE Pro that those board members have simply invested in the past. The filing does state that there are three investors in the current round, but the parties are new, strategic investors.

Control4 president Glen Mella issued this statement today:

This round is funded by 3 strategic investors and will be used to accelerate Control4's global expansion, growth in the energy sector and expanding licensing opportunities.

Control4 spent much of 2010 boosting its profile in the utility sector, announcing recently that the company would deploy energy management products to 20,000 Nevada homes with NV Energy.

For years, Control4 has sought to become the “OS of the home” by licensing its core technology to third-party consumer electronics manufacturers. We haven’t seen any major takers, yet, but there have been some close calls, for example with LG, Panasonic and Sony.

Perhaps the time is near.

So far, Control4 has announced more than $75 million worth of venture funding since the company was founded in 2004.

The manufacturer of home automation, lighting control, energy management and related products claims 1,900 dealers, retailers and distributors in over 70 countries.

Who Are These ‘Strategic Partners’ Funding Control4?
We speculate who they might be, and discuss Control4's chief competition in the embedded home-OS space. [Read]