Latch - $37 Million In Startup Funding Realizes Contract With AirBnB

An interesting article I read today has sparked my curiosity thanks to the well written, spelled and grammatically correct piece by it's author, Cliff Kuang.

The article tells a story about Luke Schoenfelder, a former Apple junior policy wonk working in their Washington DC office.

Apparently Luke decided, about 4 years ago, to get involved with a startup that was aiming to enter the already crowded IoT (Internet of Things)  Smart-Lock market with an especially new designed product by talented designer, Thomas Meyerhoffer called Latch.

Luke's upbringing from a large and old farm in Pennsylvania where he was reared, motivated him to become somewhat of an infrastructure geek, as he describes himself. The article goes on to tell about his early years and why he decided to get into the Smart-Lock business. You can read more about Luke and his involvement in Latch in the source article.

There are many options today in the current consumer marketplace, offering interesting and useful attributes that are self contained in Smart-Lock products. When people think about Smart-Locks, often they might know about the August Smart-Lock product, which has been heavily marketed over the last few years and especially exciting is the recent news about August being acquired by lock industry behemoth Assa-Abloy. You can read an article we wrote recently about that here.

Luke and Thomas teamed up to produce and market the product known as Latch. The video at the top of this page was made a little over two years ago and adequately shows the concept. Thomas Meyerhoffer is reknowned as another technology engineer who worked alongside Johnny Ive, the talented design engineer for Apple and influential in many Apple products, including the iPhone, Mac and Apple TV products.

What is Latch?






I'm glad you asked...

Latch is a smart access system that offers many of the most sought after attributes desired today by consumers, commercial and industrial building managers and residents.

Essentially, Latch is the ultra-modern electric strike, intercom and access control system for the modern multi-residential apartment and condominium markets.

 There are three distinct models currently and they look quite well made and nouveau.




The M series is designed as the mortise lock variant. It offers the well known mortise core body, familiar to many people for over a hundred years in the wider market. For more specific details see the Latch M Series link.

The R series is designed as a hub or access point for controlling third party products connected to it's system. Simple presentation of your credential, via phone, keycard or combination entry, it can operate elevators, communal access doors etc. For more specific details see the Latch R Series link.


The C series is designed as a conventional cylindrical deadbolt system, deliberately designed to replace the common deadbolt we see in use on many homes, offices and other dwellings. It offer similar access control features to the other series' in the Latch range but also includes connections to WiFi, Bluetooth and HomeKit systems. For more specific details see the Latch C Series link.


AirBnB recently contracted with Latch to bring their unique product to it's legions of bed and breakfast hosts, in an apparent attempt to modernize it's offerings, after the recent debacle over the bricking of Access Control locks by it's partnered manufacturer recently. See our recent article.

And Luke Schoenfelder believes that Amazon and delivery companies may also be quite interested in the application too. See our article about Amazon and home deliveries.



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