Nine Four Ventures is excited to announce its follow-on investment in SmartRent’s $60M Series C round led by Spark Capital and with participation of Bain Capital Ventures, RET Ventures, Fifth Wall, Energy Impact Partners, and the Amazon Alexa Fund.
SmartRent, which was just listed in Forbes 2020 list of venture-backed startups most likely to reach unicorn ($1B +) status, is an enterprise home automation and IoT platform for single and multi-family residential assets. Smart home technology is continuing to become a “need to have” versus a “nice to have”, and SmartRent is leading that charge.
SmartRent’s hardware agnostic platform integrates seamlessly into the existing workflows of property managers, to create benefits not only for multi-family residents, but also for property managers. Owners and operators who choose SmartRent can select from hundreds of solutions and integrations, including access readers, vacant unit management, predictive maintenance, leak detection, virtual doorman technology, and much more.
In a post-COVID-19, more sanitized, world, SmartRent’s contactless self-guided tour product has garnered particular interest. The tool enables prospective tenants to schedule appointments and walk themselves through vacant units available for rent. This way, landlords can show apartments in a safe and secure manner while the world shelters in place and can also reduce broker costs.
Residents, on the other hand, can also access myriad benefits through SmartRent, such as access control, smart locks, smart thermostats, and more. To hone in on a use case here, if a resident isn’t home but wants to allow the dog walker in to pick up and walk his/her dog, he/she is able to provide access remotely as well as track when the dogwalker entered the unit and how long the dogwalker stayed in the unit.
Overall, SmartRent’s two-sided platform is unique in that it improves not only the productivity of property management staff but also the experience of residents. To date, SmartRent has serviced apartments for almost 100 different owners, and in 2019, it increased its number of serviced units by 600%. Lucas Halderman, SmartRent’s CEO, was previously the CTO at Colony Starwood Homes, and has direct experience with the pain points he and his team are solving. We’re humbled and excited to be alongside the team – employees and investors – for the ride!
