Latch deal with UPS opens new doors for home deliveries

Latch, a Manhattan-based startup that builds app-based locking systems, has struck a deal with UPS that lets apartment dwellers who don't have a doorman receive deliveries when they're not home.

UPS drivers can now unlock Latch-enabled doors using a trackable, dedicated "credential" or code on their handheld device and leave packages in a lobby or some other secure area within the building. Drivers will not be opening apartment doors.

The partnership has so far resulted in a pilot program in Brooklyn and Manhattan that could expand to other cities. It follows a deal that Latch made a year ago with jet.com, a Walmart-owned e-commerce company, which provided the Latch keyless-lock service to more than 1,000 non-doorman buildings in New York.