Level Home hit by layoffs as owner shifts smart locks to Kwikset
Assa Abloy says Level will keep operating, but The Verge reports most staff were laid off and the founders are leaving.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
3 min read
Assa Abloy has cut most of the staff at Level Home and is moving the smart lock business under Kwikset, according to The Verge. The shake-up matters for Level customers because the company’s locks rely on software and cloud services for some features, even as Assa Abloy says support will continue.
The Verge reported that a person familiar with the restructuring said Level CEO John Martin and CTO Ken Goto, who founded the company, are leaving. The same person said much of the engineering team is also out, while a small group will remain to finish an upcoming product for managing locks in multifamily buildings.
Level Home built its name on smart locks that look like conventional deadbolts. Its design put the battery, motor and electronics inside the deadbolt hardware, rather than using a large interior housing commonly seen on connected locks.
Restructuring follows 2024 acquisition
Assa Abloy, the Sweden-based lock and access company, bought Level Home in 2024. It also owns Kwikset, another lock brand with smart home products.
The Verge said it reviewed an audio recording from a staff meeting in which Peter Boriskin, Assa Abloy North America’s chief technology officer, and Kimberly Cummins, its head of North American human resources, told employees that most of their jobs had been eliminated immediately as part of a broader reorganization of Level. The publication also cited a LinkedIn post from a former Level employee as confirmation that layoffs had occurred.
Assa Abloy confirmed to The Verge that Level Home had been restructured but disputed any suggestion that the business had closed. Rebecca Samuel, the company’s director of communications and branding for America, told The Verge by email that Level continues to operate inside Assa Abloy and that the company will keep developing and selling Level lock hardware and the Level platform.
Samuel also told The Verge that customer support and users would not be affected. She said Assa Abloy remains committed to supporting customers and investing in smart locks.
The Verge noted that Assa Abloy’s latest financial report showed declining sales in its North American residential segment. The report did not state that the decline caused the Level restructuring.
Cloud services are the key customer question
The person familiar with the layoffs told The Verge that Level has hundreds of thousands of active users and raised concern about whether Assa Abloy can maintain that customer base. Assa Abloy’s statement said support will continue.
If Level’s cloud services were shut down at some point, The Verge reported, some lock features could be affected. The publication identified the Level app, auto-unlock and door status sensing as examples of functions that may depend on Level’s cloud systems.
The same report said basic locking and unlocking should continue for Level locks connected through Matter or Apple HomeKit, because those systems can work locally rather than through Level’s servers. Level locks also retain physical key access.
The person familiar with the restructuring told The Verge that Assa Abloy could potentially revise the locks to reduce their dependence on Level’s servers, but said doing so would be complex. Assa Abloy has not announced such a change.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.