Proxy, a San Francisco based digital identity platform that allows users to create and use their unique IDs to get authenticated and communicate with real world devices through Bluetooth signals of their smartphones or wearables has raised $13.6M in a Series A round.
The funding round was led by an American VC firm, Kleiner Perkins in participation with WeWork Creator Fund, Y Combinator, Coatue Management & Justin Mateen. After this round, Proxy’s total funding amount has raised to $16.8M since its last seed funding in August 2016.
Best of luck to the founders (Denis Mars and Simon Ratner) of Proxy for their continued efforts.
The startup lets you instantly unlock office doors and reserve meeting rooms using Bluetooth Low Energy signal. You never even have to pull out your phone or open an app. But Proxy is gearing up to build an entire Bluetooth identity layer for the world that could invisibly hover around its users. That could allow devices around the workplace and beyond to instantly recognize your credentials and preferences to sign you into teleconferences, pay for public transit or ask the barista for your usual.
Opening office doors isn’t super exciting, though. What comes next is. Proxy is polishing its features that auto-reserve conference rooms when you walk inside, that sign you into your teleconferencing system when you approach the screen and that personalize workstations when you arrive. It’s also working on better office guest check-in to eliminate the annoying iPad sign-in process in the lobby. Next, Mars is eyeing “Your car, your home, all your devices. All these things are going to ask ‘can I sense you and do something useful for you?’ ”
After demoing at Y Combinator, thousands of companies reached out to Proxy, from hotel chains to corporate conglomerates to theme parks. Proxy charges for its hardware, plus a monthly subscription fee per reader. Employees are eager to ditch their keycards, so Proxy sees 90 percent adoption across all its deployments. Customers only churn if something breaks, and it hasn’t lost a customer in two years, Mars claims.
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