SwiftConnect, which lets employees use their phones to get into the office, raises $17 million TechCrunch
The widespread adoption of flexible work has increased the challenge of managing access to physical, commercial buildings, due to the dynamic nature of hybrid workspaces. With today’s employees coming and going to the office on an unpredictable schedule, it can be difficult to keep track of whether they have access to office rooms and resources.
In a recent survey made by HID Global, an independent brand of the access control group Assa Abloy, 41% of businesses said they believe their current system meets the requirements – down from 51% in 2021 HID Global, as a supplier, is not necessarily objective. But it is not unthinkable that it is true that assert access control has become more difficult than it used to be.
Chip Kruger certainly believes so. Barriers in the access control space prompted him to find SwiftConnect, a platform to handle bookings, visitors and meetings in physical offices. Kruger previously partnered with Matt Copel, another SwiftConnect co-founder, to get started Waltzan access control company founded in Copel’s dorm room was acquired by WeWork in mid-2019.
Both Copel and Kruger had a brief stint at WeWork, but left to found SwiftConnect in 2020. “We had the idea that the flexibility and the required nature of the access control weWork gave WeWork. want will now be a requirement of every owner and user for Kruger told TechCrunch in an email interview. “SwiftConnect also taps into the fact that administrators are also looking for ways to use physical space and real estate more efficiently.”
SwiftConnect – which today closed a $17 million Series A round co-led by JLL Spark Global Ventures and Navitas Capital – sells access to cloud services linked to credential, device and device providers existing readers and other business systems. The company provides tools to automate the identification, authentication, and licensing steps for office spaces via mobile devices, such as a dashboard that allows administrators to issue credentials to Access certain buildings to your iOS device through Apple Wallet.
Using SwiftConnect, employees and tenants can add their employee badges to Apple Wallet on their iPhone or Apple Watch after the initial setup process. Once added, the badge gives them access to the office building, office space and gym space, and shared amenities are secured with an NFC-enabled lock.
SwiftConnect’s platform allows companies to streamline physical access controls. Image credits: SwiftConnect
“As combined and flexible work has made it ever more difficult to implement continuous access control, commercial building owners and operators are increasingly seeing it as an opportunity and pain point they’re trying to address,” Kruger said. “On-demand, connected, mobile-first access control is a requirement for most organizations that want their access control systems to enable a more dynamic space where permissions Access and credentials are subject to change based on booking or other context.”
SwiftConnect is not the first company to market with a mobile-centric access control management platform. Openpath, which has raised tens of millions of dollars in venture capital, offers a solution that allows workers to replace their physical access cards with the phones they already have. But Kruger stresses that – unlike Openpath – SwiftConnect’s system does not require any new reading hardware to be installed.
But what if your iPhone dies? Well, Kruger doesn’t have a perfect solution to that problem. However, he notes that Apple Wallet on the Apple Watch works even when the Ultra Power Saving mode is active. For the all-too-common case of lost phones, he recommends Apple’s Find My app.
“For office space users, SwiftConnect’s platform means they can enjoy returning to the office with a ‘no wait’ experience, effectively getting them from their seat on the street and never again.” have to worry about plastic badges anymore,” says Kruger.
The plug-and-play nature of SwiftConnect’s approach seems to appeal to major real estate clients like Silverstein Properties, which installed it in the 7 World Trade Center office building in February. SwiftConnect recently announced a partnership with Microsoft to develop an “intuitive, employee-centric” experience based on Microsoft PlacesMicrosoft application to manage office staff across hybrid facilities.
It’s definitely music to the ears of SwiftConnect’s investors. Follow According to Fortune Business Insights, the global access control market was worth $10.31 billion in 2019 and could reach $20.02 billion by 2027.
Kruger says that the Series A, which SwiftConnect plans to include to grow its services and professional engineering team as well as expand its presence across the UK, Europe and Australia, is already underway. raised to “surmount any potential economic difficulties”. It brings the startup’s total cash in the bank to $27 million.
“We have a product market fit based on traction, deployment, customer satisfaction, and growth,” Kruger said, while declining to answer questions about revenue or numbers. number of customers. “We are receiving significant interest from other verticals and geographies, including financial services and technology companies that are dominating the space in high-end European and European locations. Australia.”
A mix of institutional and real estate investors including Nuveen, Cushman & Wakefield, Bridge Investment Group, Crow Holdings, World Trade Ventures, 1414 Ventures and JAMF, Apple’s device management service provider, also participated in SwiftConnect’s latest equity round. SwiftConnect currently has 70 employees, with it expected to hit 80 by the end of 2022 – a hiring spree largely driven by proceeds.
