SmartRent.com Inc., which sells smart home technology systems to apartment owners and developers, plans to become known through a merger with a specialty acquisition company that values the $ 2.2 billion real estate launch. with the case.
SmartRent, which uses the technology in about 185,000 apartments in the US and Canada, plans to announce on Thursday that it will merge with Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp, which raised about $ 345 million in an initial public offering earlier this year. . people said. The special purpose venture was sponsored by Fifth Wall, a venture capital firm that invested in SmartRent last year through one of its funds.
Separately, some of the largest homeowners and housing developers in the U.S. – who are also customers of SmartRent – have agreed to invest a total of $ 155 million in the startup, according to people familiar with the matter. This group includes Blackstone Group Inc.,
Starwood Capital Group LLC, Lennar Corp.
and invitation houses Inc.,
said the people.
The merger, which is expected to close later this year following a regulatory review and shareholder vote, will be one of the largest such transactions to date involving a proptech company and a specialty procurement company. SPACs, also known as blank check companies, have become popular in the capital markets and at proptech companies in recent years because they allow private companies faster and with more price security than the traditional initial public offering.
SmartRent, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., Was founded in 2017 by Lucas Haldeman, the former chief technology officer of Colony Starwood Homes, later known as Starwood Waypoint Homes and merged into Invitation Homes, one of the largest owners of single-family rental homes. His idea was to give rental units many of the smart home features that have become much wider in homes that people own than in homes that people rent.
Landlords can use SmartRent technology to manage and monitor thermostats, utilities, safety and plumbing from a computer or smartphone. Landlords can also provide their tenants with apps that can support these features, along with other smart home technologies – such as the virtual assistants of Siri and Alexa – that tenants decide to add.
Write to Peter Grant by [email protected]
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