On the surface, the smart lock space can seem pretty crowded already, with names like Lockitron and August and Kisi and Kevo apparently in play for several years. But New York based Latch contends it’s mostly still noise. Aka a lot of crowdfunding campaigns, and a lotless actual product delivery.
That noise is part of the reason why Latch has spent the past two years keeping its head down focused on developing its first product — bar the odd bit of press coverage, including from when it graduated from the R/GA accelerator this time last year. The founding team includes two ex-Apple employees: CEO Luke Schoenfelder, who worked in worldwide government affairs for Cupertino, and a former senior Apple designer, Thomas Meyerhoffer, Latch’s chief design officer.
The startup is now ready to start manufacturing its first smart lock product, which is targeted at the enterprise market, and specifically aims to address multi-occupancy apartment blocks such as mansion blocks and/or offices (rather than being intended for front doors of individual apartments). It’s also coming out of stealth proper to discuss the product, the eponymous Latch Lock, and disclose how much funding it’s raised — announcing a $10.5 million Series A round led by Lux Capital today.
Other investors in the Series A round include Primary Venture Partners, Corigin Venture Partners, Camber Creek, Expansion Ventures, PCH, Camber Creek, 3rd Prime Capital, R/GA, Techstars, Wan Li Zhu of Fairhaven Capital and Zach Aarons of MetaProp. In total it’s pulled in $16 million in funding to date since being founded in 2014.
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Latch Company Profile on Crunchbase
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August Debuts Three Products And Its Partner Platform 'August Access'
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