Nabu Casa
Nabu Casa operates Home Assistant Cloud, a privacy-focused subscription service providing remote access, voice assistant integration, encrypted backups, and media streaming for users of the open-source Home Assistant platform, and sells official Home Assistant hardware to DIY smart home enthusiasts globally.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2018
- HeadquartersIrvine, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Nabu Casa does
Nabu Casa, Inc. is a privately held, bootstrapped software and hardware company founded in 2018 by Paulus Schoutsen (creator of Home Assistant) and Pascal Vizeli (creator of Home Assistant OS), headquartered in Rohnert Park, California. The company operates Home Assistant Cloud, a subscription-based service that provides secure remote access, voice assistant integration with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, encrypted offsite backups, and WebRTC-based media streaming to users of the open-source Home Assistant home automation platform. Nabu Casa also designs and sells official Home Assistant hardware including the Green and Yellow hubs, the Voice Preview Edition, and Connect ZBT-2 and ZWA-2 adapters for Zigbee, Thread, and Z-Wave, with refurbishment handled through partner AmeriDroid.
The technology stack is a multi-cloud architecture spanning AWS (ECS, DynamoDB, Route53), DigitalOcean (remote access nodes in NYC1, SGP1, FRA1), Microsoft Azure (Cognitive Services for STT/TTS), and Cloudflare (R2 storage for backups and TURN for WebRTC), deployed across three global regions (Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe). All smart home data and voice audio are end-to-end encrypted between user devices and Home Assistant instances, with users holding encryption keys such that Nabu Casa itself cannot access the data, and voice audio is processed only in server memory and deleted immediately after transcription.
Revenue is generated through monthly or annual Home Assistant Cloud subscriptions (priced at $6.50/month or $65/year in the US, with regional equivalents in EU, UK, and Canada, plus an international tier) and hardware sales, with the company explicitly stating it has no outside investors or debt. Distribution is fully self-serve via account.nabucasa.com and home-assistant.io, supplemented by local retailers and a refurbishment partnership with AmeriDroid. Customer acquisition is product-led and community-led, drawing on the millions of users in the Home Assistant open-source community via the Home Assistant Community Forum, Discord, GitHub, newsletter, and blog. A portion of proceeds funds the Open Home Foundation, which oversees Home Assistant, ESPHome, and related open-source projects.
Nabu Casa firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Nabu Casa
- Legal name
- Nabu Casa, Inc.
- Website
- https://nabucasa.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2018
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Nabu Casa operates Home Assistant Cloud, a privacy-focused subscription service providing remote access, voice assistant integration, encrypted backups, and media streaming for users of the open-source Home Assistant platform, and sells official Home Assistant hardware to DIY smart home enthusiasts globally.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Nabu Casa industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Smart Home Cloud Platform
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)
- SIC
- Household Audio & Video Equipment (3651), Household Appliances (3630)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Smart Home Hubs, Controllers & Voice Assistants (HSAPAQAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Voice Assistant & Smart Home Hub Setup (Alexa/Google/HomeKit) (HSAHADAF), Whole-Home Automation System Design & Programming (HSAHADAA)
Keywords
Where Nabu Casa is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Irvine
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Nabu Casa business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations
Revenue model
- Home Assistant Cloud Subscription: Monthly or annual subscription providing remote access, cloud backup, voice assistant integration, and Nabu voice processing. Sold directly to consumers with 31-day trial period. Pricing varies by region (USA, EU, UK, Canada) with VAT included in EU/UK prices.
- Official Home Assistant Hardware Sales: Sale of Home Assistant Green, Home Assistant Yellow, Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition, Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 (Zigbee/Thread), and Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2 (Z-Wave). Hardware is made by the team building Home Assistant to provide optimal experience.
- Refurbished Hardware Sales: Refurbished Home Assistant Green systems sold through partner AmeriDroid at $20 discount off normal retail price, supporting sustainability and reducing e-waste.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Standard subscription with all features |
| Subscription | Annual | Annual subscription discount |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
Nabu Casa product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Nabu Casa sells Home Assistant Cloud, a subscription service that provides encrypted remote access, voice assistant integration (Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and the proprietary Nabu voice assistant), 5GB offsite encrypted backup, and WebRTC media streaming for self-hosted Home Assistant smart home installations. The company also designs, manufactures, and sells official Home Assistant hardware devices including Home Assistant Green, Yellow, Voice Preview Edition, and Connect ZBT-2/ZWA-2 adapters, with proceeds funding the Open Home Foundation.
Product overview
Nabu Casa operates Home Assistant Cloud as its core commercial product, a subscription service that provides remote access, voice assistant integration, and backup services for Home Assistant users. This cloud service is tightly integrated with Nabu, the company's voice assistant technology featuring the 'Okay Nabu' wake word. Nabu Casa also sells official Home Assistant hardware including Home Assistant Green (entry-level), Home Assistant Yellow (advanced), Voice Preview Edition (voice assistant hardware), and Connect ZBT-2/ZWA-2 (Zigbee/Z-Wave/Thread adapters). All hardware products gain features over time through firmware updates, and proceeds fund the Open Home Foundation which supports Home Assistant, ESPHome, and related open source projects.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Nabu: The private voice assistant for Home Assistant smart home. Includes the wake word 'Okay Nabu', speech processing via Home Assistant Cloud, and integration with Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition hardware.
Products and services
- Home Assistant Cloud Subscription-based cloud service providing encrypted remote access to Home Assistant instances, native Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa integration, 5GB encrypted offsite backup, low-latency WebRTC camera streaming, and cloud-accelerated Nabu voice processing. Sold directly to consumers via 31-day free trial and monthly/annual subscriptions, with regional pricing for USA, EU, UK, Canada, and international markets. Revenue funds Home Assistant and Open Home Foundation development.
- Nabu Voice Assistant Privacy-focused voice assistant built on open protocols and open source software. The "Okay Nabu" wake word runs entirely on-device. Optional cloud-accelerated speech-to-text and text-to-speech processes audio in server memory only and deletes it immediately after transcription; voice data is never used for model training. Designed to integrate with every device, automation, and script in a Home Assistant smart home.
- Home Assistant Green Entry-level official Home Assistant hardware device marketed as the easiest way to get started with Home Assistant. Suggested retail price raised to $199/€179 in 2026 due to component cost increases. Sold through the home-assistant.io storefront, local retailers globally, and refurbished via partner AmeriDroid in the US.
- Home Assistant Yellow Powerful and expandable official Home Assistant hardware designed for advanced users with more demanding smart home configurations. Sold through the home-assistant.io storefront as part of Nabu Casa's official hardware lineup.
- Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition Privacy-focused voice assistant hardware designed to work with Nabu out of the box. Features premium audio processing in a home-friendly design. Received multiple wake word support updates in 2025.
- Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 Official USB adapter for connecting Zigbee and Thread devices to Home Assistant. Can be flashed with experimental repeater firmware (released March 2026) to act as a dedicated Zigbee/Z-Wave mesh network repeater via the Open Home Foundation's Toolbox.
- Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2 Official USB adapter for connecting Z-Wave devices to Home Assistant. Added Wi-Fi and PoE support in late 2025. Can also be flashed with the experimental repeater firmware to serve as a dedicated Z-Wave repeater.
Quantifiable outcome
- 100% uptime maintained over 90-day period
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Nabu Casa
Customer profileSegments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Nabu Casa technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration4 records
AI capability3 records
Feature6 records
Nabu Casa partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.
- AmeriDroidcoreUS-based electronics retailer and partner for Nabu Casa's first refurb program. AmeriDroid inspects returned Home Assistant Green units, ensures all accessories are present, wipes personal data, and sells refurbished devices at $20 off retail price. This partnership supports sustainability goals and reduces e-waste by finding new homes for working devices.
- Open Home FoundationcoreNabu Casa is a commercial partner of the Open Home Foundation, which includes Home Assistant, ESPHome, and multiple projects supporting the Open Home. Through sales of official hardware and Cloud subscriptions, Nabu Casa funds the foundation's work. Both Home Assistant and ESPHome are part of this foundation.
- Microsoft AzurecoreVoice services (Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text) rely on Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services. Nabu Casa handles credential negotiation but does not proxy requests. Audio is processed only in server memory and not stored at rest. Microsoft does not retain text or audio content generated.
- CloudflaresupportingCloudflare R2 used for cloud storage of backups and TURN service for WebRTC connectivity. DNS services also provided via Cloudflare.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)supportingAWS ECS (Lambda, containers) for service handlers across all three regions. AWS DynamoDB for database services. AWS Route53 for DNS. Infrastructure deployed in us-east-1, ap-southeast-1, and eu-central-1.
- DigitalOceansupportingDigitalOcean droplets (NYC1, SGP1, FRA1) used for remote access nodes, providing the secure tunnel connection for users accessing their Home Assistant instances from outside their homes.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Nabu Casa competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Hubitat: Sells local-processing smart home hubs (Elevation) with optional cloud features for DIY/privacy-conscious users. Highly comparable business model — hardware-led, community-focused, emphasizing local control over cloud dependency, with paid cloud tiers.
- Aqara: Smart home hub manufacturer (e.g., Aqara M3, M2) with cloud services and broad Zigbee/Thread/Z-Wave device support. Similar DIY-focused audience with both hub hardware and a subscription/cloud component, though with a more device-centric rather than open-source-centric ecosystem.
- Athom: Manufacturer of Home Assistant-compatible hardware (e.g., preinstalled HA Yellow kits). Targets the same Home Assistant user community with hardware offerings, making it a direct channel-adjacent peer in the HA ecosystem.
- HomeSeer: Long-standing smart home hub and automation platform with both local and cloud-connected options, sold to DIY/advanced users. Comparable in serving technical smart home enthusiasts with paid hub hardware and software tiers.
Broad incumbents
- SmartThings (Samsung): Samsung's smart home hub and cloud platform supporting a massive device ecosystem. Comparable in offering cloud-connected home automation with hub hardware, but at much larger scale and as part of a broader consumer electronics portfolio.
- Apple HomeKit: Apple's smart home platform with cloud-connected device control and HomeKit-compatible hardware. Comparable as a privacy-respecting smart home cloud offering, but tightly integrated into Apple's broader ecosystem rather than open source.
- Google Home / Nest: Google's cloud smart home platform with Nest hubs and Google Assistant integration. Directly competes for smart home control and voice assistant workloads, but at vastly greater scale and with a cloud-first (rather than local-first) architecture.
- Amazon Alexa: Amazon's cloud smart home platform with Echo devices. Nabu Casa explicitly positions as a privacy-respecting alternative to Alexa; directly comparable in voice control and smart home orchestration, though Amazon operates at massive scale with bundled services.
- Tuya: IoT cloud platform powering thousands of white-label smart home brands. Comparable as a cloud infrastructure layer for smart home devices, though Tuya focuses on enabling OEMs rather than serving end consumers directly.
Emerging players
- Mycroft AI: Open source privacy-focused voice assistant with on-device processing. Most philosophically aligned peer to Nabu Casa's privacy-first voice offering, though significantly smaller in scale and resources.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Nabu Casa social profiles
Digital presenceNabu Casa financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Nabu Casa leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
Nabu Casa funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Nabu Casa M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Nabu Casa
What does Nabu Casa do?
Nabu Casa sells Home Assistant Cloud, a subscription service that provides encrypted remote access, voice assistant integration (Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and the proprietary Nabu voice assistant), 5GB offsite encrypted backup, and WebRTC media streaming for self-hosted Home Assistant smart home installations. The company also designs, manufactures, and sells official Home Assistant hardware devices including Home Assistant Green, Yellow, Voice Preview Edition, and Connect ZBT-2/ZWA-2 adapters, with proceeds funding the Open Home Foundation.
Is Nabu Casa a public or private company?
Nabu Casa is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Nabu Casa founded?
Nabu Casa was founded in 2018. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Nabu Casa based?
Nabu Casa is headquartered in Irvine, United States, in the North America region.
How does Nabu Casa make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Home Assistant Cloud Subscription is the primary driver. The others are official Home Assistant Hardware Sales and refurbished Hardware Sales.
Who are Nabu Casa's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Hubitat, Aqara, Athom and HomeSeer. Broad incumbents are SmartThings (Samsung), Apple HomeKit, Google Home / Nest, Amazon Alexa and Tuya. Mycroft AI is listed as an emerging player.
Does Nabu Casa have an API?
No public API is recorded for Nabu Casa.
What industry is Nabu Casa in?
Nabu Casa's product category is Smart Home Cloud Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HSAPAQAA, Smart Home Hubs, Controllers & Voice Assistants, with a secondary code of HSAHADAF, Voice Assistant & Smart Home Hub Setup (Alexa/Google/HomeKit). Its NAICS code is 5182 and its SIC code is 3651.