Item 1. Business
Item 1: Business
Our Company
We are an enterprise real estate technology company that provides a comprehensive management platform designed for property owners, managers and residents. Our suite of products and services, which includes cloud-based software-as-a-service ("SaaS") solutions many of which are enabled by smart building hardware, provide seamless visibility and control over real estate assets. Our platform can lower operating costs, increase revenues, mitigate operational friction and protect assets for owners and operators, while providing a differentiated, elevated living experience for residents.
Through a central connected device ("Hub Device"), we enable the integration of our platform with third-party smart devices, our own hardware devices and other technology interfaces. We use an open-architecture, brand-agnostic approach that allows owners, operators, and residents to manage their smart home systems through a single connected interface. Our Smart Community solutions include software and devices that power (i) smart apartments and homes, (ii) access control for buildings, common areas, and rental units, (iii) community and resident WiFi, and other solutions such as asset protection and monitoring, parking management and self-guided tours. Our Smart Operations solutions include work order management, the automation of leasing and resident call handling, audit management, and the automation of the inspection process. We also have a professional services team that provides customers and residents with training, installation, and support services.
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We have designed our smart home operating platform to enable our customers to more efficiently and effectively manage their properties and interface with their residents. Importantly, our enterprise software integrates into most existing property management systems used by residential property owners and operators. We believe that our customers realize several benefits from implementing our solutions, including:
Operating Efficiency. We believe that our customers can recognize cost savings on utilities through the utilization of our solutions, including our connected smart thermostats, smart lights, and leak sensors, as well as through more efficient management of vacant rental units.
Incremental Revenue Generation. We believe that rental owners may be able to increase, or maintain higher, rental rates (depending on the rental market and solutions offered) due to the differentiated resident experience and strong demand for smart communities. Additionally, we believe our solutions can increase resident retention, accelerate leasing and re-leasing activities, and provide ancillary monetization opportunities.
Cost Reduction. We believe that owners and operators can decrease their leasing and re-leasing costs by streamlining the processes associated with touring, resident onboarding and offboarding, and customer servicing. For example, our self-guided-tour solution allows prospective residents to tour a property 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without assistance from property management staff. In addition, we expect our solutions will help to eliminate or reduce rekeying and lockout expenses and other property management redundancies.
Asset Protection. We believe that customers utilizing our asset protection solutions, including our connected leak sensors and thermostats, may be able to realize a decrease of approximately 70% to 90% in water damage expenses and lower insurance costs over a three year period.
We believe SmartRent is a category leader in the enterprise smart home solutions industry. As of December 31, 2024, we had 809,497 Units Deployed and over 650 customers, including many of the largest multifamily residential owners in the United States (the "U.S."). For more information about our “Units Deployed” and other metrics, refer to the section of this Report titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”
As of December 31, 2024, our customers own or operate an aggregate of approximately 7.4 million rental units. This represents approximately 15% of the U.S. market for institutionally owned multifamily rental units and single-family rental homes. In addition to multifamily residential owners and management companies, our customers include some of the largest single-family rental homeowners, homebuilders and iBuyers in the United States.
We generate revenue primarily from sales of smart home systems that enable property owners and property managers to have visibility and control over assets, while providing all-in-one home control offerings for residents. Our revenue is generated from: (1) the direct sale to our customers of hosted services from monthly subscription fees collected from customers to provide access to one or more of our software applications (“Hosted Services”) including access controls, asset monitoring, WiFi, and related services; (2) the sale and delivery of smart home devices, which generally consist of a Hub Device, door-locks, thermostats, sensors, and light switches ; and (3) installation and implementation of smart home devices that enable our Hosted Services.
During the year ended December 31, 2024, to further focus and align our efforts, we defined four strategic pillars: Sustainable Annual Recurring Revenue ("ARR") Growth, Platform Superiority, Operational Excellence and Collaborative Innovation. With a solid strategy in place and a clear focus on enhancing our competitive strengths, we believe SmartRent is positioned to capitalize on significant market opportunities, deliver high return on investment to our customers and create sustainable long-term value for our shareholders.
Our Industry, Competition and Market Opportunity
Demand for Smart Home Technology
We believe that network effects are driving demand for smart home technology and increasing the penetration of smart home technology in both the multifamily residential and single-family rental home sectors. Many residents now view smart home technology as a necessity, although relatively few communities currently offer it to residents. We expect this dynamic will drive demand for smart home technology as additional owners and operators evolve to meet this growing demand for integrated smart home solutions.
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Fragmented Technology Offerings
The residential technology market remains fragmented, with offerings generally consisting of isolated point solutions and closed-architecture devices that do not integrate with one another. To assemble a complete building solution, owners and operators often need to source smart home technology from multiple vendors and point solution providers and patch their products together to create a modern building experience. Under this fragmented structure, the process to evaluate, procure, install, and service smart home technology can be expensive and time-consuming for owners and operators. With our holistic smart home operating system and in-house installation, training, and support services, we believe we offer a smart home solution that provides a full-service, end-to-end experience.
Competitive Market
Given the emerging nature of smart home technology in residential real estate, the industry is highly fragmented and there are a number of companies developing solutions that may be similar to parts of our smart home operating system. We believe our primary competitors are software companies that have historically provided singular, point solutions to new development properties and used third-party installation services, and hardware companies, many of which have closed architectures. We believe these companies fail to provide a comprehensive solution that meets the enterprise management and security requirements of owners, operators, and residents. We expect competition to intensify in the future as the market for smart home technology in the residential real estate industry continues to mature.
Our Competitive Strengths
We have developed a scalable and operator-friendly smart home operating system that provides a comprehensive solution for the industry:
Integrated Solution. We offer a holistic integrated solution that includes enterprise software, hardware, and resident applications.
Hardware Agnostic. Our solutions are compatible with a wide variety of other smart devices including, among others, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Honeywell thermostats, and Yale smart locks.
Open Architecture. We have an open architecture that can integrate with many property management systems, including, among others, Yardi, Entrata, RealPage, and Engrain.
Professional Services. We provide in-house professional services with employees in our implementation, installation, and support departments which allows us to maintain consistent quality and service across markets.
While several of the largest multifamily residential owners are current SmartRent customers, we believe that we have only begun to take advantage of the full market opportunity in residential and commercial real estate sectors and in domestic and international markets. We have adapted our software and applications to target opportunities in other residential real estate sectors, including single-family rental homes, student housing, senior housing, and new construction homes. In addition, we believe there could be significant potential for growth beyond residential real estate to other commercial real estate asset classes, including, among others, offices, hotels, retail, industrial, and self-storage. Furthermore, we believe there could be an attractive opportunity to expand our smart home solutions into other markets globally.
Seasonality
Our business and related operating results have been, and we believe that they will continue to be, impacted by seasonal factors throughout the year. We typically experience greater demand for deployments in the Spring and Summer and lower demand in late Fall and Winter primarily due to inclement weather conditions in the Fall and Winter months.
SmartRent Solutions and Products
A SmartRent connected community is a “curb to couch” concept where an entire property utilizes a variety of our solutions and products, along with third-party smart devices and features that can be remotely managed to provide efficiency, automation, asset protection, and ancillary revenue opportunities.
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SmartRent Solutions
SmartRent continually evolves its solutions to meet the dynamic needs of the rental housing industry, positioning itself as a leader with a comprehensive suite of integrated offerings. Our solutions seamlessly integrate within a unified software ecosystem, optimizing community workflows and enhancing operational efficiency. This comprehensive approach can enhance the resident experience, streamline daily operations, and facilitate smart home device management across entire portfolios. By integrating these solutions into a single ecosystem, SmartRent creates connected communities that drive value for owners, operators, site teams, and residents. Our fully integrated, hardware-agnostic offerings, organized as Smart Communities Solutions and Smart Operations Solutions, include the following:
Smart Communities Solutions. Smart Communities Solutions is a collection of integrated software and hardware designed to enhance community functionality and integration. Through advanced technology, these solutions facilitate seamless connections among residents, site teams, and owners. The components work together to streamline community management for owners and operators, increase convenience for residents, and provide operational flexibility for site teams and owners. This unified platform raises the standard of living and working by optimizing daily operations for greater efficiency and responsiveness to user needs. Offerings under the Smart Communities Solutions umbrella include Smart Apartments, Access Control, Self-Guided Tours, Community WiFi, Package Management and Parking Management.
• Smart Apartment s. Smart Apartments is a solution that connects all the smart devices in a community to a single dashboard, enabling property managers to remotely monitor and control unit access, climate settings, and security while providing residents with a seamless, user-friendly experience that enhances convenience and efficiency. It encompasses physical hardware components such as smart locks, thermostats, hub devices, and sensors, that enhance the convenience and efficiency of community living. The platform utilizes a hardware-agnostic approach, allowing for seamless integration with leading third-party hardware providers such as Yale, Honeywell, and Salto, operating primarily on Z-Wave technology for reliable remote management and to enable centralization efforts. Additionally, hardware solutions such as smart locks, hubs, and sensors are manufactured in-house under the Alloy brand. These devices serve as the backbone for our ongoing software innovations, helping accelerate growth and advance initiatives focused on optimizing site team and resident experiences. They also contribute to improved automation and enhanced energy efficiency. The seamless integration of our hardware solutions with our evolving software platform facilitates new capabilities and improved processes that will provide greater value to users. These devices are managed and controlled through two primary software platforms: SmartRent Manager for owners, operators, and site teams, and the Resident App for residents.
o SmartRent Manager. SmartRent Manager is a web-based software enabling owners and operators to manage and configure SmartRent Solutions. It integrates with major property management, customer relationship management, and third-party proptech platforms, enabling centralized management of residents, prospects, access control, and automation. When a resident moves out, the automated move-out feature immediately locks the apartment door, resets interior thermostats to the “Vacant Mode” temperature, and revokes resident access to their unit, common areas, Community WiFi, parking, and the SmartRent app — all with the click of a button. Communities can create “Vacant Mode” automations to increase efficiencies, such as work orders for unit turns and activating energy-saving mode. SmartRent Manager Mobile, a native mobile application, allows owners and operators to remotely manage work orders and control access, including resident move-ins and outs.
o Resident App. Resident App is designed to put comfort, control, and convenience in residents’ hands by giving them the ability to control their smart devices via a mobile application. With just a tap, residents can lock and unlock their front door, adjust the thermostat to their liking, and automate daily tasks through Schedules and Automations. Residents can also create service requests within the app, which automatically generates a work order, allowing maintenance to fix the issue quickly. Residents can control who enters their home by creating and sharing access codes with visitors. Powered by the Resident App, the best-in-class smart home experience streamlines daily interactions with staff and delivers the modern living experience residents expect.
• Access Control. Access Control is a community-wide, cloud-based access control system that protects building entry, common areas, and amenity spaces for multifamily residential properties using control panels, access readers, and intercoms. Integrated with major property management systems and SmartRent’s extensive product suite, Access Control automates labor-intensive manual processes to enhance operational efficiencies of common area access and community security. This solution allows residents to create temporary access codes for deliveries, services, or guest access while also offering remote access for residents and site teams at various entry points (e.g., amenity doors, gates, pools, and elevators) without the need for fobs or separate keys. The system features monitoring systems for visitor logs and real-time door lock activity alerts, providing transparency and a safer community. Access Control can be implemented in new construction or retrofitted in existing properties.
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• Self-Guided Tours. Self-Guided Tours allows prospective renters and buyers to search available rental units, homes, or model inventory, and tour at a time most convenient for them without the need for site teams or management to be present. With no app download required, prospects can search for their next home through a web-based platform, which is accessible through a web browser on a mobile device or computer. Self-Guided Tours include various features to ensure each self-guided tour is safe, productive, and convenient, including ID Verification for each prospective renter/buyer and an Interactive Site Map to help prospects navigate to tourable homes. The technology enables owners and operators to expand showing hours outside of traditional hours, permit showings promptly upon request through our “Tour Now” functionality, and conduct multiple tours at the same time without hiring additional staff. Self-Guided Tours integrates with many popular property management and customer relationship management systems, and other third-party software products, which enables owners and operators to manage all prospect and other actionable data from one platform.
• Community WiFi . Community WiFi delivers secure, wireless, high-speed internet across an entire property. A network of strategically placed access points ensures seamless coverage, reliable connectivity and a device-dedicated WiFi network to power Hubs and other in-home smart devices. While Hubs have built-in cellular connectivity, in markets where cell coverage is not available or poor, communities can add Community WiFi to help maintain a consistent connection. With a Community WiFi system, owners, operators, and residents will have access to a dedicated and secure network. Residents can set up Community WiFi in seconds through their Resident App, without the need for a technician. Upon move-out, access is automatically deactivated. Community WiFi can be installed in any property type, including new construction or retrofitting existing structures, and perform site surveys to customize the equipment best suited to each property and provide full technical support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
• Package Management . We've entered into a preferred reseller partnership with Position Imaging to offer Smart Package Room which transforms package visibility, reduces labor demands, optimizes storage space and enhances resident satisfaction. Using advanced package tracking technologies, the comprehensive Smart Package Room solution guides couriers through the package log-in process and automatically directs residents to their packages, relieving the package burden from on-site associates. It identifies, tracks and manages every package delivered to a property and helps residents easily retrieve their packages with laser and audio prompts. Smart Package Room offers 2 to 3 times the capacity of lockers all while providing an agnostic solution that can accept any type of package and allows couriers and residents to always access the package room. Smart Package Room complements SmartRent’s smart home line, expands the Company’s product offerings and solves a long-standing pain point for rental housing operators.
• Parking Management . Parking Management alleviates resident and guest parking issues faced by multifamily residential properties. This solution provides an integrated software system and single-source database that allows owners and operators to automatically assign and re-assign parking spaces, review interactive maps for live parking space availability (based on parking sensors for real-time occupancy), implement a proactive enforcement process, monitor parking management with resident parking decals, and install custom parking signs to monetize guest parking. Through a Parking Management portal, residents can add or remove vehicles, edit vehicle details, review assigned parking decals, and provide guests with parking access. Parking Management integrates with many popular property management systems, which enables owners and operators to manage all parking-related actions from one platform. Parking Management is available to communities as a stand-alone product or as part of our fully integrated smart home operating system.
Smart Operations Solutions. Smart Operations Solutions encompasses integrated software solutions focused on centralizing community operations to improve efficiency and collaboration. This software suite is tailored to streamline management processes by consolidating various operational tasks onto a single platform. It aims to enhance productivity among site teams by providing tools that facilitate better communication, coordination, and management of community tasks. Smart Operations Solutions is designed to modernize and simplify the operational aspects of community management, making it easier for teams to deliver high-quality service and support to residents. Offerings organized under the Smart Operations Solutions umbrella include Work Management, Answer Automation, Audit Management and Inspection Management.
• Work Management. Work Management enables on-site teams to manage tasks, respond quickly to inquiries, and engage in preventative maintenance all from a mobile device. Through work order and service request automations, the platform provides a simplified overview of on-site tasks and allows for easy scheduling of team members. In addition, the application offers a mobile interface, allowing owners and operators to accomplish more on the go with access to the application available both online and offline. Walk & Talk is an AI voice assistant for the mobile Work Management app and when creating a task, users will be able to dictate a description of the problem, and AI will use cues in the description to prefill the task category, subcategory, and place. Work Management provides real-time tracking of assets, enabling owners to effectively manage the state of their assets and make informed decisions by giving on-site teams an easy way to scan assets and make updates from anywhere in the community. Advanced reporting visualizations through dashboards directly in the platform enable informed decision-making and simplified portfolio management. Teams can also choose to export data into third party tools for deeper analysis. The application integrates with major property management systems to provide an up-to-date and personalized experience.
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• Answer Automation . Answer Automation reduces costs and improves on-site team efficiency through the automation of leasing and resident call handling. The platform automatically routes calls to the right team members with up to ten levels of escalation based on a predetermined set of business rules. It uses natural language processing ("NLP") to understand and answer customer queries and can escalate calls to appropriate team members as needed. Answer Automation also allows residents to easily create work orders that are automatically assigned, improving response times and increasing satisfaction. Answer Automation’s integrations with major property management systems enable our platform to immediately recognize resident calls via Caller ID so site teams can deliver a personalized experience. In addition, Call Masking, which masks the team member’s phone number so that it appears to the call recipient as the community’s phone number, allows team members to easily communicate with residents and prospective residents without exposing their personal information. Answer Automation integrates with SmartRent’s Self-Guided Tours to provide an easier way for prospective renters to schedule tours and enhance on-site efficiency. Advanced reporting capabilities help site teams make informed decisions and bring attention to the most frequent call areas.
• Audit Management. Audit Management allows for the quick and reliable determination of a community’s financial accuracy through a consolidated review of the rent roll, deposits, resident lease files, and more. The platform captures community demographics to minimize risks and evaluate whether residents can meet pro forma rents and satisfy lender requirements by comparing the current rent roll to resident lease files. Users can build and edit templates on the fly to include custom forms and fields, streamlining the audit process and increasing efficiency for teams. Real-time variance tracking and reporting helps teams easily identify and correct common data entry errors, as well as analyze and share results. With an intuitive design and customization options, Audit Management replaces outdated, manual processes with a modern, user-friendly platform.
• Inspection Management . Inspection Management automates the property inspection process so that teams can quickly access property and unit conditions, plan for capital improvement expenses, and monitor the performance of a portfolio. The mobile platform is available on iOS and Android and is accessible both online and offline. Inspection Management streamlines inspections with customizable fields and forms and simplifies documentation with team coordination, allowing for easy scheduling and assigning of tasks to team members, vendors, and contractors. The application enables teams to build accurate budgets with real-time cost-tracking capabilities based on pre-established standard costs. Insightful reporting provides data using customized filters, allowing teams to easily analyze, export, and share findings to make informed decisions.
SmartRent Hardware
We offer a variety of in-rental unit devices and common area devices that elevate the resident experience and provide multiple benefits to owners and operators. A typical SmartRent rental unit or single-family rental home is equipped with a Hub Device, smart locks, thermostat, and leak sensors. In addition, several other devices can be integrated into our smart home operating system, including smart plugs and lighting (including light bulbs, switches, and dimmers), shades, garage door controllers, video doorbells, peephole cameras, video intercoms, contact and motion sensors, and voice assistants. With our smart home operating system, residents can remotely control and manage their smart home devices and home settings through a single application. In addition, because our software is hardware agnostic, customers can choose from a wide variety of device manufacturers and use their favorite devices together in one fully integrated smart home operating system.
The Hub Devices are a vital aspect of our smart home operating system that elevates the living experience for residents. Our Hub Devices use reliable and secure Z-Wave communication for remote control of connected devices and allow users to remotely manage multiple device settings from one application. Certain Hub Devices combine a thermostat and touchscreen panel that allows users to control all of their devices from one location. Using the touchscreen device, users can, among other things, review settings, change the temperature, and lock or unlock doors. In addition, users can download the companion mobile application to remotely control their devices, such as manage their home temperature and grant access for guests and deliveries.
We also partner with several manufacturers to offer a range of compatible hardware options for any property, including:
• Video Doorbells. We partner with Ring to offer a selection of compatible video-enabled doorbells. Our integration with Ring allows users to add devices to their SmartRent application for a more robust control system, including live view and notifications.
• Indoor and Outdoor Cameras. We also partner with Ring to offer a selection of indoor and outdoor cameras that can be added to any property. With battery-operated and plug-in options available, customers have flexibility to select the cameras that are appropriate for each property.
• Smart Locks and Lock Boxes. We partner with third-parties to offer a selection of Z-Wave or Bluetooth-enabled smart locks and lock boxes offer customers options for keyless entry and simplified guest access. With various keyless entry options, including deadbolts, interconnected locks, lever locks, and patio locks, these products can be customized to meet each property’s needs.
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• Smart Thermostats, Sensors, Plugs, Switches, Dimmers, and Readers. We partner with third-parties to offer (i) thermostats for all types of HVAC systems with programmable options, including forced air, radiant and heat pump, (ii) leak, parking, contact and motion sensors used to proactively monitor and protect properties, (iii) smart plugs to add automation to lights, fans, or other small appliances, (iv) smart switches and dimmers to upgrade lighting in apartments and homes, and (v) a selection of readers, panels, and boards, including as part of our Access Control solution.
Sales and Marketing
We promote our solutions and brand through multiple integrated marketing channels. Our marketing strategy includes industry events such as conferences and tradeshows, digital marketing platforms and targeted communications. Our website serves as a comprehensive resource featuring our product documentation, blog articles, white papers, case studies and regular product releases.
Our digital marketing strategy encompasses several channels, including search engine optimization (SEO), Google Ads campaigns, programmatic display advertising and an active presence across professional social media platforms. We engage our audience through organic content, targeted advertising and a comprehensive content marketing program that includes a recurring newsletter, product updates and educational materials.
We primarily sell our solutions through our internal sales organization to diverse customers, including single-family rental homeowners, homebuilders and iBuyers, across our operating markets. Our sales team engages prospects through telephone and email communication, while our visibility is further enhanced through publications in recognized industry magazines and online media outlets.
Environmental and Sustainability Benefits
We are facilitating a more sustainable future by helping owners, operators, and residents reduce energy consumption, meet de-carbonization goals and achieve sustainability objectives. Our solutions are designed to reduce overall energy consumption by setting limitations on vacant units, controlling ventilation, and providing automated work orders based on temperature and humidity thresholds. Our platform drives these benefits through a variety of connected devices, including smart thermostats, leak sensors, smart appliances and smart lighting. We also reduce waste through predictive maintenance tools and building software integrations. In this way, our solutions are a key tool in reducing water usage and energy consumption across entire portfolios of real estate assets.
Human Capital Management
Our employees are critical to our success. As of December 31, 2024, we had 494 total employees worldwide, all of which are full-time employees. We also engage consultants and contractors to supplement our workforce. A majority of our employees are engaged in engineering, software and product development, sales, and related functions. As of December 31, 2024, we have not experienced any work stoppages and consider our relationship with our employees to be in good standing. None of our domestic or international employees are subject to a collective bargaining agreement or represented by a labor union.
We seek to foster a welcoming, inclusive work environment where employees can be themselves and do meaningful work that positively impacts our customers and communities. Our culture is supportive, engaging, and fast paced and facilitates partnerships among coworkers with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Our employees have opportunities to get involved in resource groups and give back to the community. We engage with our employees to gather insight, feedback, and data about their workplace experiences, and manager effectiveness. This data informs and supports our action plans, with the goal of enhancing workplace satisfaction and overall employee well-being and effectiveness.
We attract and retain talent through market-based compensation, our employer brand initiatives, employee referral programs, and through internal career growth. Employee growth and development comes from receiving real-time, informal feedback, a formal performance review, career path transparency, and ongoing role-specific training.
The structure of our compensation programs endeavors to give employees peace of mind when it comes to health and financial benefits so that they can focus on doing their best work. Our total rewards program enables us to retain talent, reward high-performing employees at all levels and incentivize and motivate exceptional performance. In addition to competitive base pay, we have an annual bonus program for employees at all levels, stock-based compensation for certain employees, and a comprehensive variable compensation program specific to our revenue organization. Both the bonus and variable compensation plans are tied directly to individual and company performance. Our competitive benefits program includes a 100% employer paid medical option for employees and dependents. Additionally, we provide dental, and vision for employees and their dependents, life insurance, flexible time off, paid parental leave, employee stock purchase plan and a 401(k) plan with a company match.
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Research and Development
Our near-term product roadmap includes new leasing solutions (including an online application for the leasing process and other applications for lease signing and customer relationship management), resident experience solutions (including applications for marketplaces, amenity reservations, rent payments, and work orders), home IoT solutions (including hubless systems, smart appliances, and video and security systems), building IoT solutions (including energy, water, and air metering), and property operations solutions (including centralized maintenance management, IoT-triggered predictive maintenance alerts for HVAC and plumbing, asset portfolio planning, vendor performance tracking, and energy reporting with Environmental, Social, and Governance ("ESG") dashboards and predictive analytics).
Supply Chain
Generally, our hardware device suppliers maintain a stock of devices and key components to cover any minor supply chain disruptions. Where possible we utilize multiple sourcing methods to mitigate the risk of disruption from a single supplier. However, we also rely on a number of single source and limited source suppliers for components of our solutions. Replacing any single source or limited source suppliers could require the expenditure of significant resources and time to source these products. The majority of our hardware devices sold, both proprietary and third-party, are manufactured overseas.
Intellectual Property
We regard our intellectual property rights as critical to our success generally, with our trademarks, service marks, and domain names being especially critical to the continued development and awareness of our brands and marketing efforts. We protect our intellectual property rights through a combination of trademarks, trade dress, domain name registrations, trade secrets, and a patent, as well as through contractual restrictions and reliance on federal, state, and common law. We enter into confidentiality and proprietary rights agreements with employees, consultants, contractors, and business partners, which include invention assignment provisions for our employees and contractors. We have several registered trademarks in the U.S., as well as other trademarks globally. We have also registered a variety of domestic and international domain names, the most significant of which relate to our SmartRent brand.
Government Regulation
We and our partners are subject to various federal, state, and local regulations related to access control products, such as state and local building and fire codes, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended, and requirements for certifications by Underwriters Laboratories, a global independent safety science company, and the Federal Communications Commission.
We, our customers, and our partners may be subject to numerous federal and state laws and regulations, including data breach notification laws, data privacy and security laws, and consumer protection laws and regulations (including Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (the "FTC Act") that govern the collection, use, disclosure, protection, and other processing of personal information). Privacy and security laws, self-regulatory schemes, regulations, standards, and other obligations are constantly evolving, and may conflict with each other, which complicates compliance efforts, and can result in investigations, proceedings, or actions that lead to significant civil and/or criminal penalties and restrictions on data processing. For example, California has enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the "CCPA") that became effective on January 1, 2020. The CCPA, among other things, created new data privacy obligations for covered companies and provided new privacy rights to California residents, including rights to access and delete personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing, and receive detailed information about how personal information is used. The CCPA also creates a private right of action with statutory damages for certain data breaches, potentially increasing risks associated with a data breach. Further, the California Privacy Rights Act (the "CPRA") amended and supplemented the CCPA, imposing additional data protection obligations on covered companies doing business in California, including additional consumer rights processes and opt outs for certain uses of sensitive data. The CPRA also created a new California data protection agency tasked to enforce the law, which is likely to result in increased regulatory scrutiny of California businesses in the areas of data protection and security. The substantive requirements for businesses subject to the CPRA went into effect on January 1, 2023. Further, according to the Federal Trade Commission (the "FTC"), violating consumers’ privacy rights or failing to take appropriate steps to keep consumers’ personal information secure may constitute unfair acts or practices in or affecting commerce in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act. The FTC expects a company’s data security measures to be reasonable and appropriate in light of the sensitivity and volume of consumer information it holds, the size and complexity of its business, and the cost of available tools to improve security and reduce vulnerabilities. Other regulations that may apply to us depending upon the circumstances include, for example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and the Tenant Data Privacy Act (TPDA) in New York.
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Corporate History
We were originally incorporated in Delaware on November 23, 2020 as Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. I (“FWAA”), a special purpose acquisition company, formed to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, or other similar business combination with one or more target businesses. On February 9, 2021, FWAA consummated its initial public offering (the “IPO”), following which its shares began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market (“Nasdaq”).
On August 24, 2021, we consummated the Business Combination (as defined below) contemplated by the Merger Agreement dated April 21, 2021 (as amended, the “Merger Agreement”), among FWAA, Einstein Merger Corp. I, a wholly owned subsidiary of FWAA (“Merger Sub”), and SmartRent.com, Inc. (“Legacy SmartRent”). Upon the closing of the Business Combination, Merger Sub merged with and into Legacy SmartRent, with Legacy SmartRent continuing as the surviving company. “Business Combination” refers to these mergers, together with the other related transactions.
At the closing of the Business Combination, Legacy SmartRent changed its name to “SmartRent Technologies, Inc.” and FWAA changed its name to “SmartRent, Inc.” Additionally, we changed our trading symbol and listing on a securities exchange from “FWAA” on Nasdaq to “SMRT” on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”).
SmartRent, the SmartRent logo and other trade names, trademarks or service marks of SmartRent appearing in this Report are the property of SmartRent. Trade names, trademarks and service marks of other companies appearing in this Report are the property of their respective holders.
Available Information
Our website address is www.smartrent.com. We make available, free of charge through our website, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports, filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as soon as reasonably practicable after they have been electronically filed with, or furnished to, the Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”). We may announce material business and financial information using our investor relations website (investors.smartrent.com), SEC filings, webcasts, press releases, and conference calls. We use these channels to communicate with investors and the general public about our business, products and services and other important developments. We encourage you to regularly review these communication channels, including our investor relations website.
The SEC maintains an internet site (http://www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.
Information contained on or accessible through the websites listed above is not incorporated by reference nor otherwise included in this report, and any references to these websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.