SmartRent’s Lucas Haldeman and Fifth Wall’s Brendan Wallace (iStock)
As pandemic-challenged apartment landlords scrambled to cut costs, SmartRent CEO Lucas Haldeman’s phone lit up.
The owners were eager to adopt the four-year-old firm’s operating platform, which lets them automate building operations such as climate control and door locks.
To meet the demand and beef up its product offerings, SmartRent announced a deal Thursday to go public with a blank-check firm backed by proptech VC firm Fifth Wall.
The deal values SmartRent at $2.2 billion or 41.5 times the startup’s 2020 revenue and will give it $513 million in cash. The deal also includes a $155 million investment from customers including Lennar, Invitation Homes and Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital.
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The SPAC Deal: SmartRent announced a SPAC merger with Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp I (NASDAQ: FWAA) valuing the company at $2.2 billion.
There are no SPAC warrants involved in the deal, which means less dilution to shareholders later on.
Founder shares are being given a three-year lockup to ensure the long-term investment in the company. Existing shareholders will have a six-month lockup on their shares. Investors in the company include Starwood Capital,
Lennar Corporation (NYSE: LEN), Invitation Homes and Koch Real Estate.
Current Fifth Wall Acquisition I shareholders will own 15.9% of the new company after the merger.
About SmartRent: SmartRent is a leader in smart home technology for the global residential real estate market. The company offers an internet of things operating system for residential property owners, managers, homebuilding, home buyers and residents to lower costs.
The SPAC has raised about $345 million since going public last year, according to a Wall Street Journal report. SPAC investors will be joined by a $155 million PIPE investment, made up of some of the biggest names in real estate: single-family rental giant Invitation Homes, real-estate investor Starwood Capital, and construction giant Lennar. The Journal is also reporting that world s largest landlord, Blackstone, is part of the deal.
SmartRent combines smart-home technology with a software operating system that allows landlords and property managers of single-family and multifamily portfolios to remotely monitor energy use and efficiency, let prospective tenants take self-guided tours, and monitor building systems for leaks and other risks. Tenants are also able to monitor many of these things themselves through SmartRent s apps and voice assistants.
Amazon-backed home tech startup SmartRent to go public in over $2 bln SPAC deal reuters.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from reuters.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
21 Apr 2021, 08:57
The social housing investment firm has appointed ex-Blackstone executive Michael Pearson as chief financial officer as it expands from its Manchester base with a London office.
The group was founded in 2015 by real estate entrepreneurs Guy Horne and David Searle, and has now opened an office at Fora in Soho that has led to the creation of five jobs.
HSPG’s move coincides with the appointment of Michael Pearson, the former chief financial officer of two real estate platforms of the fund manager Blackstone – Invitation Homes and, more recently, Sage Housing.
Pearson has joined as CFO and is leading on strategy and fundraising for affordable housing.