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Rental proptech Latch locks up new software partnership with AppFolio

Craig C. Rowe; Canva

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Latch, a publicly traded property technology and services company specializing in automating how people interact with rented real estate, has inked a deal with property management software company AppFolio.

AppFolio’s solution will “automate resident access management seamlessly,” the company said in a June 7 announcement.

“Latch’s growing list of integrations is unlocking more resident benefits and making property management even more streamlined for our customers,” said Latch incoming CEO, Jamie Siminoff, in a statement. “This integration, along with Latch’s upcoming anticipated closing of the Honest Day’s Work transaction, demonstrate Latch’s continued work to build upon its vision to make it easier for customers to deliver the best possible living experience to their residents.”

Latch is acquiring Honest Day’s Work, a company founded by Siminoff, who also founded video doorbell company Ring, which he sold to Amazon for $1 billion. Honest Day’s Work provides software for domestic service vendors, such as dog walkers, care providers and delivery drivers.

According to Nasdaq.com, Siminoff will become CEO of Latch “later in 2023.”

AppFolio’s functionality will empower Latch, and vice versa because of a two-way integration, in a variety of ways but largely by streamlining resident data into Latch access systems, reducing manual input of resident identities, lease data, property locations and other critical community data. This betters data integrity enterprise-wide, leading to, among other advantages, increased speed of doing of business.

“Latch’s User Sync feature adds residents automatically from the PMS (property management software) to Latch Mission Control, while Latch’s Automated Access feature adjusts resident access credentials within Latch to seamlessly reflect any changes made within a building’s property management system,” the release stated.

Latch raised $70 million in a Series B round in 2018, led by Brookfield Ventures. A year later, it raised $126 million more in a continuation of that round.

At that point, Latch prioritized smart-lock products. It has since expanded it significantly, largely into enterprise, introducing Lidar-based room monitoring systems, a full-featured mobile app with automated concierge services and multi-building per-room environmental controls, as well as new locks and individual access permissions.

AppFolio’s software supports all forms of rented property, from mother-in-law units of single family rentals to institutional landlords. Its features include in-depth financial reporting, leasing agent training, community operations, marketing, tenant communications and all other operational demands of handling leased real estate. It offers web and mobile applications.

Latch is debuting its new integration at the National Apartment Association’s Apartmentalize conference in Atlanta this week, June 7-9, 2023.

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