The Breaker Times

Smart locks may still be a niche product, but lock behemoth Assa Abloy is clearly betting on a digital future for our doors. Despite being sued by the US Department of Justice for trying to buy too many smart lock manufacturers, the Swedish-based company just bought another one: sleek smart lock maker Level Lock.

With this latest purchase, Assa Abloy, which owns a staggering 190 brands in the “access control” space, may now have a significant piece of the puzzle it needs to push the market into a digital future. “Their innovative platform provides an easy transition from mechanical locking to digital access solutions with minimal effort,” said Lucas Boselli, executive vice president of Assa Abloy, in a press release.

Level’s technology dispenses with the large, bulky housing common with connected locks. Instead, it integrates everything needed to digitally control and power the lock into the deadbolt mechanism. From the outside, a Level smart lock looks just like a traditional lock. The company has a retrofit solution for an existing deadbolt and all-in-one smart locks with features like touch-to-unlock and Apple Home Key unlocking.

The obvious move for Assa Abloy is to incorporate Level’s tech — both hardware and software — into its existing stable of locks, including Kwikset and its sister brand, Baldwin, and make smart locks that don’t look like smart locks. This would be an easier transition for the mass market than the current method of sticking a big black box on your door.

Assa Abloy has a history of adapting innovative tech into legacy products. When it bought August in 2014, it added the smart lock startup’s neat auto-open technology to Yale smart door locks and has used the Connected by August modules to keep its products at the forefront of the smart lock market.

However, last year, Assa Abloy was forced to sell Yale and August (to US-based Fortune Brands) in order to buy two arguably bigger fish in the US residential lock hardware market — Kwikset and Baldwin (which were owned by Spectrum Brands). While it lost August completely, it held onto Yale outside the US. Yale is now two separate companies: Yale US (owned by Fortune Brands) and Yale in the rest of the world (owned by Assa Abloy).

According to the DOJ, owning Kwikset and Baldwin, as well as Yale and August, was too many lock makers for one company: “The proposed transaction would transform these markets, giving Assa Abloy a near-monopoly in premium mechanical door hardware and more than a 50 percent share in smart locks, leaving only one significant competitor.” That competitor being Schlage, which is owned by Allegion.

While it complied, just a year later, Assa Abloy has snapped up another smart lock startup in Level. This one — which had $16 million in sales in 2023 — is probably too small to catch the attention of the DOJ again, but Level’s patents in the smart lock space could provide the company with the opportunity for another technological leap forward.

While innovative, Level, with its high price point and limited connectivity options, has been a minor player in the smart lock space. Assa Abloy says it will continue as an independent company, but that’s what they said about August. We haven’t seen a new August product since 2020.

As with August and Yale, Level’s tech will likely become part of Assa Abloy’s larger brands, such as Kwikset. Assa Abloy is also all in on Matter, which means it now has a clear path for both technology and connectivity. The next path is making smart locks easier for us to use. Auto-unlocking, fingerprint access, keypads, and app control are all useful, but people really want a digital key.

To address this, Assa Abloy, Apple, Google, Samsung, Allegion, and others are developing the Aliro access control standard. This industry standard is designed to provide a universal way for smartphones and smartwatches to communicate with a lock. The idea is that Aliro will allow you to unlock your door with just a tap, no matter who made the door lock or the phone or watch you’re using.

Aliro is still at the concept stage (there’s no official specification yet), but it will involve UWB, NFC, and Bluetooth. Apple’s recent announcement that it’s bringing UWB auto-unlocking to Apple Home is tied to Aliro, and the company’s Home Key technology will likely be a part of the standard, too. The stage is being set for the next generation of smart locks, and with Level, Kwikset, Matter, and Aliro all in the mix, Assa Abloy is positioning itself right in the spotlight.