Organizations like the World Forum The Hague, world’s largest port group PSA, food company Alpro (Danone Group), and dozens of other multinationals were in search of one thing looking: a modern access control solution. And this is something that Belgian NineID has given them.
The Ghent-based startup states that other technologies are outdated, not privacy-compliant and offer limited security. In addition, manual onboardings and check-ins are not user-friendly and can lead to administrative chaos.
In 2022 NineID announced its launch and investments worth €1.3 million. To that amount, the access management start-up now adds another €1.1 million to successfully clock off its seed round at $2.6 million.
The additional capital was raised from lead investor Pitchdrive, Comate Ventures and some business angels (including the founders of Belgian success story Showpad). The news follows on the heels of the opening of an office in New York and the use of the platform by World Forum The Hague – where Ukrainian President Zelensky was welcomed. The round will be used to accelerate international growth and R&D.
Founded in 2021, NineID acts as an interface between the cyber world and the real world using user-friendly solutions that increase access security, corporate site security and privacy compliance. The start-up’s offerings include both a privacy-compliant SaaS platform for documentation that centralizes user identification, certificates and training (making documents easily available for audits), and the hardware devices needed for on-site access management, which work with QR codes, smartphone scans or facial recognition.
The founders, Roy Jeunen and Frederik Keysers, built the solution while experiencing cumbersome security procedures themselves. “In our previous roles we underwent long queues and many security checks prior to getting site access via (RFID) badges. If I would pass on this badge, the whole process would have been for nothing.” says Roy.
“Companies often lose sight of physical identity and access management when focusing entirely on cyber security.” adds Roy. “Many companies still use badges to access its facilities, while it’s common for these badges to be passed around, copied or stolen. This allows hackers to gain access to company premises and use unattended computers, opening both the literal and figurative door for security breaches.”
Last February, NineID put their theory to the test by successfully claiming an access badge from an unknowing company to access all sensitive information just 15 minutes later. They posted the result on their YouTube channel. “According to sources like IBM’s 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report, physical breaches such as this one, as well as intrusion and social engineering, are blamed for more than 10% of data breaches caused by physical security breaches.” said Roy. “Until now, those sites have typically relied on limited sampling due to the large numbers of third-party visitors. Thanks to NineID, they can now be sure that everyone who enters their site is 100% security compliant.”
Earlier this year, the company opened an office in New York to better serve the US market. To achieve further internationalization and expand the robustness of their solution, NineID raised additional funds from lead investor Pitchdrive and an impressive list of well-known names from the Belgian technology landscape. Comate Ventures, Louis Jonckheere and Pieterjan Bouten (founders Showpad), Dries Buytaert (founder Drupal CMS), and other entrepreneurs are supporting this crucial growth phase of the company.
“The unique combination between a hardware unit and software for access control, makes NineID a unique, more compliant and above all much more secure solution compared to competitors working with the well-known badge control, for example. This puts them in a strong position in the market, which they have already proven in the traction of the past months where dozens of corporate sites worldwide have switched to NineID. We are impressed by the progression the team has already made in the past year, and can’t wait to be part of the further growth to come.” said Boris Bogaert, co-founder of Pitchdrive.
