US-based smart lock producer Latch agreed yesterday to a reverse merger with TS Innovation Acquisitions Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) launched by one of its investors, real estate manager Tishman Speyer.
The merged business will get $300m held by TS Innovations and will take the position it took on the Nasdaq Capital Market when it floated in November 2020. The joint company is expected to be valued at $1.56bn once the deal closes.
Investment and financial services group Fidelity, D1 Capital Partners, Durable Capital Partners, Spruce House Partnership, Wellington Management, ArrowMark Partners, Avenir Capital, Lux Capital, private investor Chamath Palihapitiya and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock are anchoring a $190m investment backing the deal.
Latch provides smart locks and the attendant operating system for them, and has so far installed 300,000 such locks on behalf of real estate partners including Tishman Speyer and RxR Realty, another of its investors.
The company had raised $152m as of a series B round featuring RxR Realty, Tishman Speyer and Brookfield Ventures, a subsidiary of asset manager Brookfield that counts real estate developer Brookfield Properties as a sister company. The round closed at $126m in August 2019, reportedly valuing it at $400m post-money.
Camber Creek, Avenir, Lux Capital, Third Prime, RRE Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, Prime, Balyasny Asset Management and Corigin Ventures also participated in the series B round.
Latch completed a $20.5m series A round in 2017 that included design services provider PCH, Camber Creek, Primary Venture Partners, RRE Ventures, Lux Capital, Corigin Venture Partners, Expansion Ventures, Fairhaven Capital and Wan Li Zhu.
Third Prime and Camber Creek co-led Latch’s $5.5m seed round two years earlier, investing alongside advertising agency R/GA and accelerator operator Techstars, the the company having graduated from its R/GA Accelerator in 2014.
Photo courtesy of Latch Inc.
