Brilliant is back from the brink

Now called Brilliant NextGen, the company was bought by two investment firms — Almeida Strategic Investments and Cullinan Holdings — in late July. (No sale price was disclosed.) Earlier this month, they appointed Lisa Petrucci as CEO, Brilliant’s former VP of business development and sales. In the last week or so, the web store came back online, and today, the company is officially announcing its acquisition.

Other than a new name, it’s business as usual for Brilliant customers. “Customer care is up and running; there’s been no change from a customer experience,” Petrucci told The Verge in an interview ahead of the announcement. However, during the transition period, customers couldn’t buy products from the company’s website. While it was possible to find devices at third-party stores such as Amazon, Costco, and Best Buy, Petrucci says that going forward, they will cease direct-to-consumer sales everywhere other than their website.

This is part of a new focus for the company to sell primarily to professional builders, developers, and custom integrators rather than individual homeowners. “Our private investors are invested in or own single-family communities and multi-family buildings; these are people that come from the space I’m trying to court,” said Petrucci. “They bought the company because they see themselves being able to use the product in their own investments.”

Petrucci also shared that they are gearing up to launch the next generation of the core controller, which was teased by co-founder and former CEO Aaron Emigh earlier this year. “We are going to start producing that evolved system, which has four times the processing power and an AI processor for edge control,” she said. The new device will have the same form factor with a faster chip and a better screen. Petrucci says they are finalizing whether they will add any new connectivity to the devices, but hope to ship the new version in the next couple of months. The current device works over Wi-Fi. She wouldn’t share pricing details yet.

Petrucci says her focus is also on continuing to evolve their integrations so the product can control more devices in your home. A smart home control device needs to work with as many smart home devices as possible. While Brilliant is compatible with many products, including Ring, Nest, Sonos, Philips Hue, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings, the list was far from exhaustive.

This was a significant roadblock to the company’s growth and, according to Emigh, one factor — along with issues such as tariffs and global supply chain stressors — that led to the company running out of money earlier this year.

Today, Emigh, who is no longer involved with Brilliant, told The Verge he’s proud of what Brilliant created and excited about its future. “The re-formed Brilliant, which includes many team members from the original Brilliant, will build on the great work of the original team, and continue to grow Brilliant going forward,” he said. “From the perspective of our customers and partners, it will not have any impact that Brilliant is owned primarily by private equity investors rather than venture capitalists. I’m very happy that Brilliant’s mission will continue!”