Amazon, the global retail giant, has agreed to acquire smart home and video doorbell start up Ring for an undisclosed amount. Sources, including Reuters , claim the deal is valued at over $1 Billion! This would make it Amazons second biggest acquisition to date, beaten only by Whole Foods.
Ring is an American startup, founded back in 2012. Their first product was the Ring Video Doorbell. A smart WiFi enabled doorbell that allows users to see who is at their front door from any location via their smart phone app. The doorbell also connects to other smart home tech, for example lighting allowing automation and security rules.
The Ring video doorbell proved a success and it is now on its second version. They also expanded the range to a Pro line designed for commercial use.
Rings recent product lines have included smart cameras as well as innovative smart security lights. All of which that connect to the same app as the video doorbell.
Prior to the acquisition Amazon had invested in Ring via its Alexa fund. A fund that Amazon created to drive development onto their platform.
In a statement Ring said:
“Ring is committed to our mission to reduce crime in neighbourhoods by providing effective yet affordable home security tools to our neighbours that make a positive impact on our homes, our communities, and the world. We’ll be able to achieve even more by partnering with an inventive, customer-centric company like Amazon. We look forward to being a part of the Amazon team as we work toward our vision for safer neighborhoods.”
The future for Ring?
We are excited to see what Amazon has planned for Ring! At present we can only speculate but predict direct integrations with Alexa and the Amazon ecosystem.
Amazon themselves recently released a cloud based security camera, Cloud Cam, we also predict this will be eventually directly integrated into the Ring system.
We have asked Ring and Amazon for a comment and will update as we receive one.