Amazon-backed home automation tech startup SmartRent to go public in over $2 billion SPAC deal

It’s been a while since we last featured SmartRent, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based home automation startup backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Back in October 2019, we told you about SmartRent after the startup received a strategic investment from Amazon Alexa Fund to drive smart home adoption for multifamily housing. The total amount of investment was not disclosed.

Now almost two years later, SmartRent is planning to go public via a SPAC deal. In an announcement today that it has agreed to go public through a merger with a blank-check firm backed by venture capital firm Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp, in a deal that will value the equity of the combined company at around $2.2 billion.

SmartRent added that the deal also includes a $155 million PIPE anchored by real estate companies, SmartRent customers, and institutional investors, including Starwood Capital Group, Lennar, Invitation Homes, Koch Real Estate Investments, Baron Capital Group, and others.

Founded in 2017 by Lucas Haldeman, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based SmartRent is a provider of smart home automation for property managers and renters. Its platform gives property managers full control of locks, lights, and thermostats in vacant units and common areas while providing a quality smart home experience for residents.

Commenting on the announcement, Haldeman said, “We started this business as frustrated real estate operators looking for a comprehensive smart home solution. We understood the deficiencies of the enterprise smart home industry and knew that if we could build a fully integrated platform that met the needs of operators and their communities, we would have an impact not just on their business, but on society at large. Today we offer the most robust and deeply integrated platform on the market, validated by its rapid adoption and 100 percent customer retention.”

“The multifamily housing market has been largely overlooked when it comes to central installation and management of smart home technologies as a way to create a more modern, differentiated, and safer renting experience for residents,” Haldeman remarked.