Greg Marsh, CEO of KeyMe, wants his company to become the most trusted name in locksmithing. The key duplication service, which offers a convenient alternative to calling up a guy with a drill in the middle of the night, now has 3,000 locations in 72 different retailers, such as IKEA, Rite Aid and Bed Bath & Beyond.
In large part, that growth has been fueled by a steady flow of venture capital from top-tier investors such as BlackRock, Comcast Ventures, and Questmark Partners.
This week Brentwood Associates joined the pack, leading a $35 million round of funding that will help KeyMe triple its footprint to 10,000 locations — though that’s only part of the startup’s plans.
“Our big goal is really to build the first-ever brand in the $12 billion locksmith industry,” Marsh told Cheddar.
KeyMe’s kiosks are self-service machines that allow customers to quickly fabricate keys that they’ve already uploaded and stored in a database using their phones. While technology watchers have raised security concerns about the process, Marsh says it offers a better alternative to the “massively fraudulent” and often unreliable locksmith industry.
Indeed, it was a shady, late-night encounter with a locksmith in New York City during his time in business school that gave Marsh the idea for the company.
Marsh also noted that KeyMe isn’t just in the kiosk business. It also wants to create a network of “highly-vetted” locksmiths who are available to customers on an on-call basis.
“Sales from the kiosk are the majority, but we have close to 100,000 customers per month who are coming to KeyMe for some kind of locksmith service,” Marsh said. “A majority of those, about 75 percent, are in some kind of urgent lockout situation.”
KeyMe is also increasingly offering assistance outside of home lockouts, including duplication services for RFID (radio-frequency identification) and vehicle transponder keys.
“We started the company making brass keys, and that still remains a core part of the business, but we’re getting more sophisticated in the types of keys that we can make,” Marsh said.
With competitors such as MinuteKey and My Key Machine vying for similar territory, Marsh says KeyMe differentiates itself through its suite of services and focus on customer experience.
“We’ve been very fortunate to be the leader in this space. We’ve displaced our competitors out of a variety of retailers,” he said.
“Leveraging incredibly sophisticated technology and delivering a highly-differentiated, convenient and satisfying consumer experience, KeyMe is nonpareil in the locksmith industry,” said Eric Reiter, partner at Brentwood Associates, in a news release.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
