SIA New Member Profile: Swiftlane

New Security Industry Association (SIA) member Swiftlane creates modern access control systems that provide touchless access through facial recognition and mobile credentials. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, but employs engineering, software, security, operations and marketing experts across the United States and internationally.

SIA spoke with Saurabh Bajaj, CEO and founder of Swiftlane, about the company, the security industry and working with SIA.

Tell us the story of your company.

SB: Swiftlane was founded on the desire to create a positive and frictionless security experience. With the realization that there was a gap in the access control industry, Swiftlane set out to harness the knowledge and capabilities of advances in deep learning to become a part of the solution. With facility security at the top of mind for every industry, Swiftlane’s goal is to design an access solution that fosters safer, modern workspace experiences.

My tenure at Instagram, Facebook and Lyft allowed me to cultivate a unique perspective on disrupting established industries to better meet users’ needs and create better experiences. My experience at Lyft building out computer vision for self-driving cars also built the foundation for Swiftlane’s computer vision work. 

Swiftlane’s goal is to accelerate positive use of facial recognition and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, which means providing a seamless, delightful, modern access experience without compromising privacy or security. Swiftlane has used venture capital funding to build out modern access control systems that provide touchless access by facial recognition and mobile credentials. The completely cloud-based access control system is easy to install and manage and creates a better, more convenient end user experience.

What solutions/services does your business offer in the security industry? And what makes your offerings/company unique?

SB: Swiftlane offers a modern cloud-based access control system and provides multiple credential types, such as face recognition and mobile access. We also provide an integrated video intercom offering that can help manage visitors and deliveries more effectively.

Our goals are unique in that they combine security with an extraordinary user experience. Swiftlane aims to:

• Create a modern, delightful access experience
• Simplify access management
• Create and provide an intelligent access layer that can connect with the rest of the building systems
• Streamline security operations and ensure peace of mind for everyone
• Use modern formats like face recognition to provide a privacy-oriented access to modern technology

What is something we might not know about your company – or something new you are doing in security?

SB: Swiftlane is a product-focused company with a strong engineering-first culture. Within security, we are also working on newer, more complex challenges like tailgating detection and alerting – something that’s always been a major problem with physical security.

One of the unique things about our system is that it can be improved by releasing new features with over-the-air software updates. End users are getting not only what they purchased, but also continuous upgrades to the latest and greatest features. Traditionally, this process could involve significant operational overhead, downtime and cumbersome processes.

Swiftlane access control uses facial recognition technology and mobile credentials for authorization, completely eliminating key card, fobs or any other form of access token. Integrated into our access solution is Swiftlane’s video intercom system for a frictionless visitor experience.

What is your company’s vision, and what are your goals for the security industry?

SB: Our goals are to:

• Provide a secure, modern and privacy-oriented access to face recognition technology
• Create a modern, enjoyable access control experience
• Create high security with convenient access in one solution
• Increase operational efficiency to create a better, more streamlined process for anyone in the facility management business – not to mention provide peace of mind

What do you think are the biggest opportunities in the security industry right now?

SB: Security is getting connected with digital security and internal IT systems inside a corporate ecosystem. Instead of focusing purely on keeping out unauthorized persons, the industry has the opportunity to create modern, functional workspaces. It’s not just about security – it’s also about the overall experience of interacting with the building.   

What are your predictions for the security industry in the short and long term?

SB: We are seeing a strong push towards digital security and better workplace experience. With COVID-19, most businesses now want a cloud-based system that can be managed from anywhere, rather than having to set up a remote desktop with an on-premises server. Also, the move towards credentials that can be granted remotely, such as face recognition, mobile and PIN codes, which also eliminate the cumbersome challenges of coordinating key card distribution. Post-COVID, we won’t return back to the way things were; the flexible, remote-first work environment is here to stay.  

What are the biggest challenges facing your company and/or others in the security industry?

SB: The biggest challenge in the security industry for us is finding a balance between hardware, software, the cloud and high-security AI – this is a very tricky operation with many moving parts. Also, having too many layers of interactions all the way from manufacturers to end users can result in poor feedback loop, which means slower innovation and improvements. This is something that all of us need to be cognizant about and work towards tackling, so we can move the industry in the right direction.

What do you enjoy most about being at your company – and in the security industry?

SB: I enjoy hearing and receiving feedback from end customers. We have gotten notes like “This face thing is magic” and “Heads up, we are never using key cards again…this is so much simpler.” I just want to make sure that we are always aiming to make lives easier – that’s what motivates me .

What does SIA offer that is most important to you/your company? And what do you most hope to get out of your membership with SIA?

SB: SIA has been a phenomenal community to engage with like-minded people. SIA is the thought leader in technical, cultural and industry level issues,and doing great things to drive the industry forward. It’s very impressive. SIA’s Open Supervised Device Protocol (OSDP) is now that new standard for access control low-level implementation details and challenges there and is improving the overall ecosystem of security. Similarly, I really appreciate the work put in by SIA towards removing racial/gender references from technical jargon, such as blacklisting/whitelisting. Very excited to be part of it. 

How does your organization engage with SIA? What are your plans for involvement in the next year?

SB: I am very interested in contributing to safe and privacy-oriented applications of face recognition and SIA’s efforts in that direction. We are very interested in the OSDP, cultural reform proposals, the communication committee and generally getting involved in various events and chapters inside SIA.   

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts and/or profiles are those of the authors or sources and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Security Industry Association.