In smart home, simple scenarios can be often set like “When the sun sets, then switch on my lights.” But for Olisto app, advanced and complicated command like “When the sun sets and it is raining and it is Friday, then switch on my lights 30 minutes before sunset, and increase the setpoint of my thermostat to 20 degrees,” is also as easy as a click.
Amsterdam-based Olisto is a powerful app establishing connections between IoT products, apps and services. In the app, end-users can easily create real-time smart rules, which is named as “triggs” in the company. These triggs follow a “when A then B” format, allowing users to personalize their commands and start one or more actions accordingly.
Olisto exists with the app and cloud-based rule engine. As a spinoff of Quby Toon thermostat, Olisto’s rule engine has more than 10 years of smart home automation experience. All the triggs run in the cloud, so they also work without connection with smartphone. The rule engine collects information of different devices, apps and services and their capabilities through integrations with partner’s API. Tom Meijeraan, Co-Founder of Olisto
“We see a clear trend that more and more organizations are opening their ‘actionable content’ by means of an API to benefit end-user. With the integration, Olisto democratizes the process of creating new functionality, allowing users to efficiently create solutions to their own needs,” said Tom Meijeraan, Co-Founder of Olisto, “And for device manufacturers, we solve the ’impossible roadmap’ problem: a whole new range of functionality is added to their products by just connecting to Olisto once.”
With the ability to smarten connected devices, Olisto has the ambition to become a global top connectivity app in smart home, smart city, and connected car domains. The company not only works in close connection with brands like Quby Toon, Netatmo, Trust International and Philips Hue, but also with Amsterdam city, to provide real-time information of available parking spaces and electric vehicle charging poles; with football channels, to let users keep tuned in all latest matches and scores; and with emergency roadside assistance service, to enhance smooth traffic flows.
“We are an international player with users from over 50 countries worldwide. Most of our users are locating in the Netherlands, Germany and the USA, and we plan to deploy especially the latter two markets in 2018,” added Meijeraan, “A new developer portal will enable external developers to connect their devices and services to Olisto, and will be a combination of smart device manufacturers, utility companies, as well as non-IoT companies that have interesting actionable data.” Meijeraan took banks as an example. After integrating, banks will be able to utilize Olisto for upgraded notices such as “When my balance is below €100, then send me a notification and change the color of my light to red.”
Olisto wants to remain a free app for end-users, so its business model relies on third party companies who are willing to pay a recurring fee for every connected user. The company holds an open mind with expectation to work with various services with unlimited creation.