Smartrent — Business Overview
What does SmartRent do?
SmartRent is a technology company that sells smart home hardware and software to apartment landlords and property managers. Think of it as the company that puts the smart lock, smart thermostat, and connected hub into your apartment building — and then charges the property owner a monthly fee to manage all of it from a dashboard. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, SmartRent serves property owners, managers, and indirectly the residents who live in those properties.
The business breaks down across three revenue types, which together hit $236.8 million in 2023:
| Revenue Type | 2023 Revenue | 2023 Cost of Revenue | Gross Profit / (Loss) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware | $137.2M (58%) | $108.8M | $28.4M |
| Professional Services | $35.5M (15%) | $55.5M | ($20.0M) |
| Hosted Services (SaaS) | $64.2M (27%) | $23.0M | $41.1M |
| Total | $236.8M | $187.3M | $49.5M |
Professional services (installation) loses money — the hardware-and-install combination is essentially a customer acquisition cost that leads to a higher-margin recurring software subscription.
How does SmartRent make money?
SmartRent earns revenue in three layers: selling hardware, installing it, and then charging a monthly subscription. A typical deal starts with a property manager agreeing to outfit their apartment units with SmartRent devices (door locks, thermostats, sensors, a central hub). SmartRent sells the hardware, often installs it through its own crews or contractors, and then collects a recurring Hosted Services fee for access to its cloud software — think access controls, asset monitoring, and maintenance management tools.
The recurring software subscription is the most financially attractive piece. Hosted Services generated $64.2 million in 2023 (up 33% from $48.1 million in 2022) with a gross margin of roughly 64%. In contrast, hardware margins were about 21% and professional services ran at a loss. The company carried $123.2 million in deferred revenue (essentially prepaid subscriptions) on its balance sheet at year-end 2023, suggesting a meaningful backlog of future revenue already contracted. SmartRent also acquired SightPlan in 2022 for ~$135 million, which added a property operations software platform (maintenance management, inspections, resident communication) that now contributes $11.3 million in annual Hosted Services revenue under the "Smart Operations Solutions" label.
What market does SmartRent operate in?
SmartRent targets the multifamily real estate technology market — specifically, technology layered into apartment buildings. Its core customers are institutional landlords and property management companies that oversee large portfolios of rental units. The filing does not cite a specific total addressable market size, but the context is clear: tens of millions of apartment units in the U.S. represent potential installation targets, and adoption of smart building technology in multifamily housing is still in relatively early stages.
Secular tailwinds favor this space. Property managers are under pressure to cut operating costs, reduce vacancy, and offer amenities that attract renters. Smart access control (keyless entry, remote lockouts), energy management, and centralized maintenance software directly address those pressures. The shift from one-time hardware sales toward recurring SaaS subscriptions mirrors a broader trend across enterprise software. SmartRent's own revenue mix shows this shift in action: Hosted Services grew from $18.3 million in 2021 to $64.2 million in 2023, nearly tripling in two years.
Who are SmartRent's main competitors?
The filing does not name specific competitors, but SmartRent positions itself as a vertically integrated, enterprise-grade platform. Its claimed advantage is that it bundles hardware, installation, and software into a single solution designed for large property operators — rather than stitching together consumer-grade smart home devices from multiple vendors. The acquisition of SightPlan expanded this into property operations software, broadening the platform beyond just in-unit devices.
Customer concentration is a real consideration. One customer (Customer A) represented 12% of 2023 revenue; in 2022, a single customer represented 15% of revenue and another 12%. This suggests SmartRent sells to a relatively small number of large institutional property owners rather than thousands of small landlords, which means losing even one major customer matters. The industry for enterprise smart building technology in multifamily housing remains fragmented, with competition coming from other proptech (property technology) startups, traditional building automation vendors, and potentially large consumer electronics companies extending into the commercial space.
Where does SmartRent operate?
SmartRent is overwhelmingly a U.S. business. In 2023, $235.6 million of its $236.8 million in total revenue — or about 99.4% — came from the United States. International revenue was just $1.3 million, down from $2.0 million in 2022 and $2.6 million in 2021, meaning international business is actually shrinking in absolute terms.
The company has a limited but present international footprint. It holds assets outside the United States totaling $8.3 million, and it files income taxes in Croatia and India, indicating it has engineering or operational staff in those countries. The filing notes that its long-lived assets are located primarily within the United States. There is no meaningful geopolitical exposure flagged. For practical purposes, SmartRent is a domestic U.S. business with minor offshore operations, and investors should evaluate it almost entirely through the lens of the U.S. multifamily real estate market.