August Home has found someone who wants a lot of its pricey Internet-connected locks, but it’s not your typical homeowner.
Swedish business giant Assa Abloy, known for making popular door locks like the Yale lock, said Thursday that bought the San Francisco based August for an undisclosed amount.
Assa Abloy executive vice president Thanasis Molokotos said in a statement that the deal “strengthens our residential smart door strategy with complementary smart locks, expansion into video doorbells and comprehensive solutions for home delivery.”
For August, the deal symbolizes the end of its efforts as a Silicon Valley upstart aiming to disrupt bigger companies with its lineup of web-connected door locks that can be remote-controlled from a smartphone app.
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The company raised a total of $100 million since its 2012 founding, according to the deal-tracking service PitchBook.
August raised $25 million in July to help fund its recent launch of new, cheaper August Smart Lock Pro locks intended to make the high-tech gadgets more appealing to mainstream consumers, said August CEO Jason Johnson in September.
Now in the arms of a bigger company, August will get more direct help to sell its products to the masses, the tradeoff being that it loses its independence as a more nimble startup. The acquisition also highlights the challenges consumer hardware startups face creating big-hit products that result in big enough sales to help them compete with much larger businesses.
Johnson said in a statement that he is “committed to working with ASSA ABLOY to see the vision materialize over the next few years.”
