Smart homes were supposed to make things easier for us. The technology was intended to make our homes run more smoothly, be more efficient and perhaps save us some money, without us having to lift a finger. An automated paradise that looked after everything we didn’t want to do ourselves.
Instead, what we got was a mishmash of different systems, few of which talked to each other, most of which required their own hubs and the majority of which confused, rather than helped, consumers – a “smart” juicer which, it turned out, was easily replaced by hand; Bluetooth toasters that didn’t seem to bring much to the table, besides the same perfectly done toast your much cheaper, non-smart toaster did; and a kettle that you can boil from anywhere.
And that’s before you get to the security considerations. Keeping up with the regular updates to ensure your devices stay free from prying eyes is almost a full-time job in itself these days. No one wants to find their connected fridge has become part of a bot army being used in a wider internet attack.
The result has been the less than stellar adoption of the systems on a wider scale. While people may have adopted a few items – a connected alarm system or doorbell, a smart plug or two, a smart thermostat perhaps controlled by a smart speaker such as a HomePod, Echo or Nest – the potential for growth hasn’t been realised yet.
‘I don’t know what our definition of done is. What I would love to see is the experience of home cooking made accessible’
According to Statista, there are about 303 million homes classed as “smart” in the world in 2022. By 2025, that is expected to rise to more than 478 million. It might look reasonably good, but the reality is that the potential market is a lot bigger.
Putting together a smart home isn’t easy. But one thing may be about to change that: Matter.
The Matter smart home standard is set to make connecting devices much easier than before. Put simply, Matter will be the backbone technology for the smart home, and manufacturers will make their devices compatible with it. That means you can buy a Matter-enabled lightbulb or plug and connect it to your smart home without having to use a specific manufacturer’s app or smart assistant. It may well be the catalyst that the smart home has been waiting for.
For Irish company Fresco, the heart of the smart home is the smart kitchen. The company started life in 2012 as Drop with a mission to make perfect cooking simple. Its Drop scale, released in 2014, was an initial foray into this world, guiding aspiring chefs through the cooking process step by step via the scale and the accompanying app, coaxing even the most inept cook into creating a meal or two.
But now it has bigger plans. Rebranding as Fresco last April, the company has spent the last few years expanding out from its own hardware to other brands, well-known kitchen names such as Bosch, Electrolux, Kenwood and Thermomix, bringing its technology and know-how to appliances that can give users real-time feedback as they cook. Among the appliances using the technology are ovens, multicookers and Instant Pots.
Now Fresco has signed on with Matter, joining Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung and others to represent the kitchen in the Matter-enabled smart home.
[ Irish smart kitchen firm Fresco raises €18m in new funding roundOpens in new window ]
“The way I think about it is the transition from MS DOS to Windows. You needed to be more techie, it wasn’t widely available,” says Fresco cofounder Ben Harris. “Then we got to a position where there’s a personal computer in every home, and I believe that’s the sort of inflection point that Matter can unlock in the connected home, essentially. Seeing that obviously, there’s multiple standards out there in the market but Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung, and others are all working together to define the standards; it was like, this is inevitable, the next wave of how connectivity will work.”
For Harris, Matter is the game changer that will speed up adoption of smart home devices.
“I believe it’s going from millions of smart appliances in the market to hundreds of millions, because there’s billions of appliances that are sold on an annual basis. It opens up a massive opportunity for us,” he says. “It should just be just like plugging it in and that’s how easy it is to get connected and get it working and for it to deliver the value of what any other IoT [internet of things] device can deliver at scale.”
Fresco intends to play a huge part in that, opening up massive scale and compatibility across the market, which in turn will lead to a better user experience. Its approach is what Harris calls a three-legged stool: an interactive guide to cooking experience “that’s almost like Google Maps for walking through a recipe step by step”; the content and recipes to fulfil that; and then augmenting that experience with real-time appliance control and appliance feedback.
Earlier this year, the company raised $20 million (€20.2 million) and is planning on doubling its workforce in two years, developing its connected kitchen platform further and investing further in its digital platform. It also appointed Will Deines as chief operating officer as it plans the next phase of the push into the smart kitchen.
Deines previously worked with home security company SimpliSafe, and found a similar mindset at Fresco, from a focus on what customers want to the design of experiences that can transform more traditional sectors – for both the customer and the manufacturers.
‘I am a technologist, a designer who believes that connectivity is one enabler to allow us to deliver great experiences, but connectivity is not the endgame. The endgame is making sure that we’re making perfect cooking simple’
“The company that Fresco is, and is becoming, is the company that will power the development and the execution of those user experiences,” says Deines. “We can work with appliance partners to bring their digital capability to the forefront of their interaction with their users, and in doing so give users more control and give appliance partners a better relationship and improved relationship for the lifetime of that user, which is incredibly long in white goods.”
Deines sees a major market opportunity for Fresco.
“I don’t know what our definition of done is. What I would love to see is the experience of home cooking made accessible,” said Deines. “And we believe that the way to do that is to provide clarity, competence and control to home cooks. The best way to do that today is to pair incredible appliances with transformative digital experiences. So if everybody cooks at home and loves doing it, that would make me feel great.”
However, bringing the smart kitchen to the connected home won’t be a quick job. Fresco may be defining the protocol for the kitchen, but as Harris notes, that will take some time to design before Matter-compatible appliances that use the protocol are on the market. But kitchen appliances typically have a longer replacement cycle than other electronics, so Fresco is looking at a multiyear horizon for widespread adoption of its new platform.
Most important is making sure it is something that adds value to the consumer, rather than simply cramming technology into an appliance to slap a “smart” label on it. The internet of things is littered with ill-advised “connected” devices, and Fresco is keen to avoid being associated with that approach.
“We have seen in the smart kitchen market some integrations are more a solution trying to find a problem and shipping a smart appliance for the sake of shipping a smart appliance,” says Harris. “A washing machine that posts to Facebook when it’s completed its cycle doesn’t really deliver any value.
“What’s the heart of our mission is not to just make kitchens smart. All of my happiest memories growing up were cooking and eating food together with my family. Right now, there are so many people who don’t have the skills or time to be able to have those delightful moments. I am a technologist, a designer who believes that connectivity is one enabler to allow us to deliver great experiences, but connectivity is not the endgame. The endgame is making sure that we’re making perfect cooking simple.”
