San Francisco, CA – August 15, 2018 – Serent Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, announced that its portfolio company minuteKEY, an innovative leader in self-service key duplicating kiosks, has been acquired by The Hillman Group, Inc., a leading solution provider to the retail hardware market. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 2008, minuteKEY is revolutionizing the key duplication industry by changing the way customers copy keys – transforming an inconvenient and labor-intensive process into a simple turn-key solution. The company provides a fast, convenient, and easy way to duplicate keys with a faster, easier-to-use, and more accurate key cutting kiosk.
“It has been a true pleasure to have partnered with Serent Capital over the last several years,” said Randy Fagundo, CEO of minuteKEY. “Their support, guidance, and team mentality along the way has been instrumental in helping us accelerate growth and expand our kiosk footprint across the United States, and we are excited to see what the next chapters have in store for us.”
“We are thrilled for the team at minuteKEY and congratulate them on this successful outcome,” said Kevin Frick, partner and co-founder of Serent Capital. “The team did exceptionally well in executing on several growth initiatives and in continuing to build and refine an innovative product. We are fortunate to have been a part of minuteKEY’s success story and would like to thank founders Ari and Dani Freeman, Randy, and the entire management team for the trust they put in us as their partners.”
Serent first invested in minuteKEY in 2011, joining Matrix Partners, the venture capital firm that led minuteKEY’s Series A fundraise in 2010. Serent made two additional investments in 2012 and 2016. Over the last few years, minuteKEY has continued to innovate, in particular with the establishment of a new generation of kiosks. The company also continued to rapidly roll out kiosks, with more than 4,000 kiosks deployed in the field. Since Serent’s initial investment, minuteKEY’s revenue has grown 40x and the company has scaled from being unprofitable into substantial profitability.
About minuteKEY
minuteKEY makes the world’s first patented self-service, key duplication kiosk. As innovators in an age-old industry, minuteKEY founders invested several years developing the technology to create a highly accurate, secure and easy-to-use key-cutting device. Today’s kiosk, found in thousands of high-traffic retail locations in the United States and Canada, including Walmart, Lowe’s, and Menards, combines innovations in robotics, electronics, and software engineering. Founded in 2008 and based in Boulder, Colorado, minuteKEY was ranked 11th on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. for 2014. For more information on minuteKEY, visit www.minutekey.com.
About Serent Capital
Serent Capital invests in growing businesses that have developed compelling solutions that address their customers’ needs. As those businesses grow and evolve, the opportunities and challenges that they face change with them. Principals at Serent Capital have firsthand experience at capturing those opportunities and navigating these difficulties through their experiences as CEOs, strategic advisors and board members to successful growing businesses. By bringing its expertise and capital to bear, Serent helps growing businesses thrive. For more information on Serent Capital, visit www.serentcapital.com.