iControl raises $23M third round for broadband home management
iControl Networks, a Palo Alto-based startup, has closed a new round of funding that adds $23 million to bring the company’s total funding to more than $45 million. The company makes home security and energy control systems that are sold and installed by home protection companies such as ADT Security Services.
iControl is extending the accessibility of its systems with an iPhone app that lets users remotely watch their homes through cameras mounted throughout the house, and also lets them remotely control heating, cooling, lighting and security systems throughout their homes.
iControl doesn’t sell directly to homeowners. Its technology is designed to be sold by broadband service providers and home protection companies. Homeowners pay a monthly subscription fee for the service.
iControl’s competitors include 4HomeMedia a few miles south in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Investors in this round include ADT, which is a business unit of Tyco International, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, which invested through KPFC’s iFund for iPhone apps. In a prepared statement, KPFC partner John Doerr said, “iControl is extending home security and energy management to the broadband Internet and iPhones so consumers can see, protect and manage their homes anytime, anywhere. Millions of consumers will have safer homes and be smarter energy users.”
The other investors are Cisco, Comcast Interactive Capital, and CE Security.
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About the Author, Paul Boutin
Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.