Will.i.am's wearable startup i.am+ acquires Wink smart home hub from Flex
Wink — the smart home hub and platform originally incubated inside the failed connected object maker Quirky, and then acquired by Flextronics (now known as Flex) as part-payment for Quirky's debts …
Context & Ripple Effects
Wink has already survived one owner's collapse: it was incubated inside Quirky, and when the crowdsourced hardware maker filed for Chapter 11 in 2015, the smart home platform was sold off — reportedly to Flextronics for $15M — as part-payment for Quirky's debts. Founder Nathan Smith later reflected on that handoff and the hub's uncertain future under Flex.
The buyer, meanwhile, has been assembling a stack: i.am+ hired former Sony exec Phil Molyneux as President and COO in early 2015 and picked up Israeli machine-learning startup Sensiya in 2016. Buying Wink gives the wearable venture a consumer foothold in the home, and within months it announced a $117M raise alongside a voice assistant for customer service.
First-order effects
- Flex exits the consumer smart home business it inherited through Quirky's debts, transferring the Wink hub, its platform, and its installed user base to i.am+.
- i.am+ moves from wearables and acquired machine-learning tech into whole-home control, pairing the Sensiya acquisition with a live hub ecosystem.
Second-order effects
- Wink customers' support and device-compatibility continuity now depends on a celebrity-founded startup rather than a contract manufacturer, raising the stakes on i.am+'s ability to fund ongoing cloud services.
- For Flex, divesting a non-core consumer platform clears the deck to concentrate on its manufacturing and supply-chain business.
Third-order effects
- The hub changing hands twice since Quirky's bankruptcy points to a structural pattern in smart home platforms: they outlive their creators, and consolidate toward whoever can sustainably fund cloud upkeep.
- That pattern cuts both ways — by late 2019, reporting showed i.am+ hadn't paid staff in seven weeks and Wink had stopped working with many devices, illustrating how undercapitalized owners can strand connected homes when platform economics don't hold.
The trend: Smart home platforms keep changing hands as their original backers fail, with each acquirer betting that a hub can anchor voice and AI services — and each transfer leaving users exposed if the new owner's funding falters.