igloohome raises $15 million in fresh funding to launch iglooworks, an enterprise-focused smart access line to support smart cities

igloohome, a Singpore-based smart access technology startup, officially launches its new line iglooworks with $15 million fresh funding co-led by Insignia Ventures Partners, Wavemaker Partners and SEEDS Capital. New investors include Kickstart Ventures, TH Capital, Pine Venture Partners, On Asset Management, InnoVen Capital and a group of angel investors. Existing investors Singtel Innov8 and Great Noble International also participated in the round. In conjunction with the funding, the startup also announced that co-founder and previous CEO of PropertyGuru, will join its board.

Founded in 2015 by Anthony Chow, Kelvin Ho, and Sharon Goh, Igloohome creates smart access solutions helping users manage their homes and properties remotely. Inspired by the rise of Airbnb and hosts on the platform, Igloohome sells a range of key-less products that include digital locks, digital deadbolts and a digital safety deposit box. The products are notable because they work offline, requiring either a manually entry pin code or ‘Bluetooth key’ on a phone to unlock. Despite that, owners can still control access remotely, while there’s a physical key just in case.

iglooworks is a suite of smart access solutions for enterprise customers, primarily in the real estate and infrastructure sectors. iglooworks’ solutions are managed via a dashboard, designed to manage and monitor large numbers of access points for different levels of users, with features to sort, filter and export data. This is a step towards igloohome’s vision of creating smarter cities – to trace movement, reduce redundancies, and improve productivity.

In addition, iglooworks includes enterprise-grade variations of existing products and a line-up of new products, incorporating new communication protocols such as NB-IoT, Cat-M, LTE, Z-wave and more. These protocols allow for added online features of access solutions, including multi-factor authentication and real-time access information, while ensuring that battery consumption of the devices remain low. igloohome is currently working with several partners to bring its IoT-connected perimeter security solution to the market. igloohome has also been accredited by the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) in Singapore for its enterprise-grade security.

Anthony Chow, CEO of igloohome says, “In the past three years, we have developed a range of smart locks that are creating great value for vacation rental hosts and home owners around the world. With iglooworks, we have developed a solution that not only can save businesses and governments up to millions of dollars per year, but also improve security and surveillance. Our vision is to create smart access ecosystems for smart cities, increasing efficiency and reducing costs.”

One new product in the iglooworks line that is designed for industry access applications is the Smart Padlock – a versatile and portable locking device that can be used to secure trucks, gates, assets and more. Together with other customized enterprise hardware, iglooworks can be used across a myriad of industries across logistics, facilities management and asset tracking. With igloohome’s unique AlgoPIN technology, one-time or duration PIN codes can be sent to contractors, truckers, or operators, and access logs tracked by the padlock provides visibility of access.

Commenting on the funding,  Mr Paul Santos, managing Partner of Wavemaker Partners in Southeast Asia, said: “Managing and tracking access into properties, facilities, and along supply chains has consistently been expensive and difficult for enterprises with multiple assets. igloohome’s combination of smart locks and software platform has emerged as a unique and effective solution to this problem.”

“We are thrilled to support igloohome, the clear market leader in a US$20 billion smart access space that is expected to grow at twice the rate of traditional access over the next several years. We are especially delighted with iglooworks, which is becoming the gold standard to power infrastructure management in smart cities,” Tan Yinglan, Founding Managing Partner of Insignia Ventures Partners added.

igloohome currently has over 100 distribution partners, more than 100 integration partners and is working with leading property developers such as Sansiri (Thailand), Mitsubishi (Japan) and Capitaland (Vietnam). The company has undergone year-on-year growth of 4 times since launching its first product in April 2016. The funding from this round will go into research and development of new products and software for both igloohome and iglooworks, and the support of new and existing distribution partners globally, especially in Europe, the US and Asia Pacific.

Anthony Chow, CEO and co-founder of Igloohome, shows me the Deadbolt 02, a smart lock that doesn’t require Wi-Fi to work.