Participated · Series B · Nov 2024

SwiftConnect provides a platform to manage physical office access by letting employees add digital badges to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet and use NFC-enabled door locks. The dashboard allows admins to issue room-level credentials and the company says its system is live in over 100 million square feet of office space. SwiftConnect positions itself as not requiring new reader hardware, which it says helped win enterprise clients such as Silverstein Properties. The company was founded in 2020 by Chris Kruger and Matt Kopel after they sold their prior startup, Waltz, to WeWork; Kopel conceived the idea while briefly at WeWork. SwiftConnect has a 135-person team and offices in Montreal and Stamford, and it has used prior funds for at least one acquisition (Detrios). Management plans to grow the team, expand into new geographies and pursue strategic acquisitions while emphasizing a privacy-by-design approach amid concerns about badge-based tracking and smartphone downtime. SwiftConnect provides a mobile-based NFC connected access platform that integrates with existing mobile platforms, credential technologies, and business systems to deliver centralized access management and a street-to-seat user experience. Its solution is live in over 80 million square feet across dozens of commercial real estate buildings and represents a potential opportunity of over 750 million square feet and more than one million users. Customers include Fortune 100 companies, major US and UK landlords, and leading advisory, investment, and legal firms; SwiftConnect was the first to deploy NFC mobile credentials at 7 World Trade Center. The company plans to extend its global footprint and expand customer experience teams to support a rapidly growing portfolio of enterprises and trophy buildings. SwiftConnect says its growth, including associated revenue and expense expectations, means it does not expect to need further capital unless additional strategic opportunities present themselves. The company emphasizes enterprise-grade security, operational efficiency gains, and strong product-market fit as drivers of adoption. SwiftConnect provides cloud services that tie together credential providers, reader terminals and business systems to automate identity, credentialing and permissioning for office spaces via mobile devices. Employees can add badges to Apple Wallet on iPhone or Apple Watch to gain NFC-enabled access without installing new reader hardware. The company also offers tools for space booking, visitor and meeting management and has a collaboration with Microsoft to build experiences on Microsoft Places. SwiftConnect has been deployed by large real estate clients such as Silverstein Properties at 7 World Trade Center. The startup was founded in 2020, has 70 employees and expected to reach 80 by the end of 2022. Management declined to disclose revenue or customer count; the company says it has product-market fit and significant inbound interest from new verticals and geographies. SwiftConnect offers a software-only platform that integrates with existing building- and suite-level access control systems to consolidate disparate providers into a single cloud-enabled network. Its product allows employees to use a single credential to access multiple locations and enables owners and enterprises to centrally provision and revoke access without ripping and replacing hardware. The company emphasizes rapid deployment—buildings can be networked in just a few hours—and claims partnerships and rollouts with large owners, including Silverstein Properties, targeting over 50 million square feet by year-end. SwiftConnect launched in June 2020 and is led by CEO Chip Kruger and President Matt Kopel, who previously partnered on Waltz (acquired by WeWork). The business will use new capital to hire, scale its software offerings, and bolster strategic partnerships with real estate firms and enterprises. The platform targets the shift to flexible space consumption that JLL research projects will affect at least 30% of the office market over the next decade.

Led · Equity · May 2021

Paravision develops AI-powered computer vision software with a particular focus on facial recognition, offering edge and cloud-ready solutions and modular, scalable toolsets. Its technology is used by security device manufacturers, solution providers, systems integrators, and financial services firms. The company emphasizes accuracy, security, inclusion, and convenience and is the only American company ranked in the top 10 across more than 50 NIST face recognition benchmarks. Paravision's offerings support deployments in challenging conditions and across a range of identity verification and authentication use cases, including access control. The company is pursuing expanded commercial opportunities through partnerships and channel sales. Recent funding activity included a $23 million round that involved a strategic investor.