British Gas will invest 500 million into its connected homes business over the next five years, following news that the company sold more than 200,000 Hive thermostats in it's latest quarterly report.
Earlier in July, the company announced the next generation of its Hive Active Heating product family, which includes Hive Active Plugs, Hive Motion Sensors, Hive Window and Door Sensors and Hive Active Lights.
In a statement, Iain Conn, the CEO of British Gas's parent company, Centrica, said: "We believe connected home offerings will become increasingly important. We already have products in the market and have built high-quality, end-to-end capability in this area, with operating platform design and operation, hardware and software development, data analytics, installation and maintenance."
In March, British Gas acquired Internet of Things (IoT) start-up AlertMe for 44 million in order to expand its Hive service further, taking advantage of AlertMe's additional services including smart security systems and lighting.
"Today we've fulfilled our promise by launching five products that help people control their entire homes not just their energy from the palm of their hands," said Nina Bhatia, commercial director of British Gas. "We're making the connected home an easy and accessible reality by bringing the whole system to people from one, trusted provider.
"But this is just the beginning. British Gas has been innovating for 200 years and we're not about to stop. As our customers' meeds change, we'll continue to maximise technology to help make their lives easier."
The company announced in January that it would pull more data from households' smart meters after signing a three-year deal with Big Data specialist Wandisco.
