LockState Receives US$5.8 Million in Financing, Funds Will Be Used to Accelerate Home Smart Lock Promotion

Recently, the US smart lock company LockState announced that it had secured $5.8 million in financing, led by Iron Gate Capital, followed by Kozo Keikaku Engineering, Nelnet, and Service Provider Capital. This round of funds will be used to accelerate the promotion of home smart locks.

LockState launched its own smart lock brand, RemoteLock, in 2011. Users can use the integrated platform for remote operation and control various types of internet smart locks. It is suitable for holiday rental properties, retail stores, office space and apartments. In addition to adapting its own smart lock hardware, RemoteLock also provides APIs to other vendors, integrates them into their applications, and establishes a unified access control system for user management.

Founder and CEO Nolan Mondrow said that most smart-lock manufacturers choose to create separate back-ends, and LockState wants to build enterprise-level solutions that integrate all types of door locks into a unified platform.

RemoteLock provides a unified management platform, supports various types of door locks, and also opens APIs to other companies.

At present, similar smart door locks are most welcomed by leasing and commercial properties, and Airbnb is a big customer of LockState. The remaining partners also include vacation rental platform HomeAway, Internet of Things company Ayla, department store Target and so on.

Like most vendors, LockState also wants to enter general home scenarios. However, for the C-end consumer, there is still little concern with smart locks instead of traditional door locks. In March 2017, Lockstate had made a mistake during the firmware update. The 500-user Internet smart lock immediately became a "brick" and could no longer be unlocked by entering a password. Not long ago, Nest, a smart home brand acquired by Google, was in trouble. The system crashed suddenly at night, and the thermostat, camera, and door lock were all affected.

Despite the problems of security and usage, smart homes have a wide range of usage scenarios, and consumer demand is strong. The market performance is still good. According to a report from the United States research institute Grand View Research, by 2024, the global smart lock market is expected to reach US$24.2 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 60.1%.

In China, most of the smart lock suppliers are also in the main end of the B-side and the targets are on the C-side. It is reported that the penetration rate of smart door locks in Europe and the United States has exceeded 50%, Japan and South Korea more than 70%, and China is less than 3%, the market potential is still great, in 2017 there emerged thousands of brands.

It is understood that VOC is financing the acquisition of similar companies, planning 2020 IPO; Yunding Technology has completed several hundred million yuan in financing; Shushu Smart has done turntable mechanical cryptography technology; Deschman has launched Cloud Smart Fingerprint Lock. The smart lock market is in a period of rapid growth and fierce competition.