US smart lock maker August raises $38m in Series B funding to create new home access products

San Francisco-based August Home, Inc., the technology company behind the August smart lock device for home automation and security, has raised US$38 million in Series B funding. This brings the company’s total funding to date to $50 million.

The funding round has been led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Comcast Ventures and Qualcomm Inc., through its investment arm, Qualcomm Ventures. As Jeremy Cowan reports, previous investors include Maveron, Cowboy Ventures, Industry Ventures, Rho Ventures, and SoftTech VC, and all of these companies have participated in the Series B round.

August will use this latest round of funding to launch new products for home access, to expand further into retail markets, and to grow the San Francisco-based team.

The smart home market is rapidly growing in Europe and the United States. Analysts Berg Insight predict 36 million smart homes in Europe and Unites States by 2017. The smart lock is said to be seeing high demand from home users, office buildings, hotel businesses and more besides. KDDI invested in August 2014 for its “competitive edge” in product design and technology to manage and control seamless access to the home.

August was co-founded by technology entrepreneur Jason Johnson and designer Yves Béhar, and launched its flagship product, the August Smart Lock, in Apple stores nationwide in October 2014. The Bluetooth® low energy smart lock combines intelligent software and hardware to let smartphones replace keys. August’s intuitive iOS and Android apps let users send virtual keys to family, friends, and others to provide seamless access to their homes. In February 2015 the company released a new hardware device called Connect, this works alongside the August Smart Lock, providing it with a WiFi connection that enables remote access to the home and integration with other smart devices.

“Over the past two years, we’ve worked to deliver one of the most secure, intelligent ways to manage home access with the August Smart Lock and Connect, but this is just the entryway to a much larger vision,” said Jason Johnson. “With this new financing, our team will define a new product category in the smart home, aiming to solve what we call the ‘last five foot problem’. There has always been talk of the ‘last mile problem’ of bringing trusted services into the home. With our smart lock, mobile apps, and cloud-based access control, we offer homeowners, property managers, and guests a sophisticated and trusted way to control home access, bridging the gap between service providers and homeowners.”

Bessemer Venture Partners’ Rob Stavis will join August’s Board of Directors. Stavis joined Bessemer in 2000 and is focused on investments in the financial services sector and in emerging software technologies. With his past experience in consumer software and mobile development, Stavis will act as an important resource for August as the company looks to build and define fundamental products for home access.

“Access control and security bring convenience and peace of mind to the digital home,” said Rob Stavis. “Jason, Yves and the team at August have the right set of hardware, software, design and integration skills to realise this vision and extend in-home offerings in unexpected ways.”

 

Additional investors participating in this round include CAA Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, Global Brain, KDDI, SanDisk Ventures and Singtel Innov8. The August Smart Lock can be purchased for $249.99 at August.com, Amazon.com, or an Apple store, and August Connect costs $49.99 at August.com and Amazon.com.