AMSTELVEEN – May 27th 2021 Dutch start-up GRASP Innovations has raised €550,000 from Mainport Innovation Fund II for further product development and international rollout. GRASP, founded in 2019, focuses on the implementation of radar technology in security processes. They offer an advanced radar system in combination with proprietary developed software that is highly accurate and GDPR compliant.
The security solution can automate repetitive tasks currently performed by security personnel, such as the manual surveillance at access controls. Moreover, the solution provides actionable insight into the performance of passenger security checks. This results in potential staff planning improvement and an increase in security capacity. Consequently, leading to shorter queue times for passengers and higher employee and passenger satisfaction.
Robert Schuur, CEO GRASP Innovations: "We are thrilled about the collaboration with MIF II, they bring a relevant network and a lot of experience which will help us with GRASP's further growth. The fact that we have raised an investment in a difficult time for our industry gives us great confidence in the potential of GRASP. Now, we can start realizing our ambitious plans."
The right momentum in the aviation industry
COVID-19 has reduced the amount of air travellers to a minimum. Air traffic is expected to return to pre-crisis levels between 2023 and 2025. The challenge for aviation is to be able to scale with this growth, once the lockdown is over. Moreover, COVID-19 has fueled the need in aviation for contactless travel, shortened queue times and customer-friendly security processes. This must be realised while simultaneously maintaining the desired high safety and service levels. The GRASP solution helps airports to address this need and accelerates the transition to fully autonomous processes. Although GRASP mainly focuses on aviation, the company also caters other industry customers that deal with security operations, such as banks or other high value environments.
Mainport Innovation Fund II
Mainport Innovation Fund II is an initiative of Royal Schiphol Group, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Delft University of Technology, the Dutch Railways (NS) and the Port of Amsterdam, in collaboration with fund manager NBI Investors.
The fund focuses on accelerating innovations in logistics, aviation and transport and supports entrepreneurs by combining venture capital with strategic expertise and the network of the transport partners.
Thijs Gitmans, fund manager MIF II: "In challenging times GRASP has proven that its solution creates added value for aviation. We see opportunities for airports, such as our partner Schiphol, to use automation to improve processes such as security without losing quality and with even better queue times. That is why now is the right time to invest in a disruptive technology like GRASP's. The team consists of intelligent and ambitious entrepreneurs who have a lot of domain knowledge in the field of airport security. This combination means that this start-up is ideally suited to our fund."
