Latch Sees Expanded Use Cases For Smart Access System With UPS
*By Hope King*
Latch's partnership with UPS is expanding to more cities ー and applications.
"The use cases are so much broader than what we would've thought," Latch CEO and co-founder Luke Schoenfelder told Cheddar Wednesday. "People are coming up with entire new businesses just using our system."
The smart lock startup announced on Wednesday that its smart access platform ー which allows UPS to enter and leave packages in common areas of apartment buildings ー will be available in 10 more U.S. locations in the next few months.
Latch allows off-site residents to grant access to their buildings via a mobile app, keycard, or code.
The company's pilot program launched last year in New York and San Francisco, and since then, Latch has found that buildings are using the service for more than just parcel delivery, according to Schoenfelder, who cited leasing an example. Potential tenants for a building can temporarily access and view an apartment during off-hours without a broker through Latch.
Latch may resemble Amazon Key ー which allows Prime members to give authorized shippers permission to access their homes, car trunks, or P.O. boxes ー but Schoenfelder said his service is quite different.
"Our customers are in urban areas rather than with Amazon Key \[where\] it's suburban areas \[and\] you're granting entry into your personal space," Schoenfelder said. Selling to apartment buildings with secured package storage and lobbies also gives Latch scale, he added.
"We're installing one system for the entire building," he said. "Every resident, every staff member of the building has all the benefits that Latch provides."
Latch launched in 2013 and has raised $70 million in funding, as of [August 2018](https://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2018/latch-venture-funding-brookfield-partnership/).
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/latch-expands-in-building-delivery-with-ups).
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
