The widespread adoption of flexible working has increased the challenge of managing physical, commercial buildings given the dynamic nature of hybrid workplaces. With today’s workers coming and going to the office on unpredictable schedules, it can be difficult to keep track of access to rooms and office resources.
According to a study conducted by HID Global, an independent access control brand, 41 percent of businesses believe their current system meets the requirements – 2015. By 2021, it’s down from 51%. HID Global, the supplier, is not necessarily impartial. But it can’t be assumed that access control is becoming more onerous than it has been in the past.
Chip Kruger certainly believes. Obstacles in the access control space prompted him to found SwiftConnect, a platform for managing space reservations, visitors and meetings in physical offices. Kruger previously partnered with SwiftConnect co-founder Matt Koppel to start Waltz, an access control company that started in Koppel’s dorm room, which was acquired by WeWork in mid-2019.
Both Koeppel and Krueger worked briefly at WeWork, but will acquire Swift Connect in 2020. “We had a vision that the flexibility and access control that WeWork required would now be a requirement of every owner and resident. Buildings and offices moving forward due to changing work styles as the number of people working everywhere and remotely increases,” Krueger told TechCrunch in an email interview. “They are looking to use space and real estate more efficiently,” he said.
SwiftConnect — which today closed a $17 million Series A round led by JLL Spark Global Ventures and Navitas Capital — sells cloud services that connect existing credential providers, reader terminals and other business systems. The company offers tools that automate authentication, authentication and authorization steps for office spaces through mobile devices, such as a dashboard that allows administrators to issue credentials to specific buildings via Apple Wallet to access iOS devices.
Using SwiftConnect, employees and tenants can add their employee badge to Apple Wallet on an iPhone or Apple Watch after an initial setup process. Once added, the badge gives them access to their office building, office space and shared fitness and amenity area with NFC-enabled lockers.
The SwiftConnect platform enables companies to manage physical access controls. Image Credits: SwiftConnect
“As hybrid and dynamic operations make implementing seamless access control even more challenging, commercial building owners and operators are seeing it as both an opportunity and a pain point they’re trying to address,” Kruger said. “With on-demand, connected, mobile-first access control, access permissions and credentials must change based on reservation or other context to enable a more flexible environment for most organizations looking for their access control system.”
SwiftConnect is not the first to market a mobile-based access control management platform. Openpath, which has raised tens of millions of dollars in venture funding, offers a solution that allows employees to replace their physical access cards with their phones. But Krueger emphasizes that — unlike Openpath — the Swift Concert system doesn’t require any new reader hardware to be installed.
But what about when your iPhone dies? Well, Kruger doesn’t have a perfect solution to this problem. Note though that Apple Wallet on the Apple Watch will work even when in super battery-saving power saving mode. As for the most common misplaced phone situation, he points to Apple’s Find My app.
“For office users, the SwiftConnect platform means they’ll get from road-to-seat efficiently and enjoy a ‘skip on hold’ experience when they return to the office without having to worry about plastic badges again,” said Kruger.
The plug-and-play nature of SwiftConnect’s approach seems to be appealing to big 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 “intuitive, employee-centric” experiences in Microsoft Places, a Microsoft app for managing office workers in mixed-use campuses.
That’s certainly music to the ears of SwiftConnect investors. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global access control market was valued at USD 10.31 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 20.02 billion by 2027.
Kruger said the Series A was raised to “counter any economic headwinds” SwiftConnect plans to grow its professional services and engineering teams, as well as expand its presence in the UK, Europe and Australia. It brings the startup’s total money in the bank to $27 million.
“We have product market competence in terms of our traction, deployment, happy customers and growth,” Kruger said, declining to answer questions about revenue or customer base. “We’re seeing strong revenue demand from other verticals and geographies, including financial services and technology companies with positions in prime locations in Europe and Australia.”
A mix of real estate and institutional investors Nuveen, Cushman & Wakefield, Bridge Investment Group, Crowe Holdings, World Trade Ventures, 1414 Ventures and JAMF, Apple’s device management provider, also participated in Swift Connect’s latest equity funding round. SwiftConnect currently has 70 employees and is expected to reach 80 by the end of 2022 – a period of employment largely fueled by revenue.
