Smart networking: Häfele acquires ThingOS

Häfele is expanding its expertise in smart networking of furniture and rooms, and is acquiring the innovative company ThingOS.

The international Häfele Group for hardware technology, electronic access control systems and lighting in furniture and rooms has already been working successfully and intensively with ThingOS, a Stuttgart-based start-up, since 2017. ThingOS stands for “Operating System = OS for networkable objects (Internet of Things = Thing)”.

With the acquisition, Häfele is bringing technological competencies and know-how in-house to enable its customers from the joiner/cabinet maker, project business and industrial sectors to create holistic, networked room designs that are future-proof.

Specifically, the Häfele business units Nimbus (lighting & acoustics), ThingOS (connectivity) and Sphinx (electronic access control systems) are to work together to offer holistic networking solutions.

Häfele Managing Director Sibylle Thierer sees this step as the logical continuation of the company's strategy to establish itself in the market for innovative lighting solutions as a driving force in the industry. “Häfele recognised the importance of networked solutions years ago and has evolved from its traditional area of furniture lighting into a holistic lighting supplier,” comments the managing director.

“Now we are going one step further and making digital connectivity a core competency by developing it further under the Häfele umbrella together with our new family member ThingOS,” says Sibylle Thierer.