VergeSense, a company specializing in sensors that monitor commercial space interiors, has closed on a $9M round of funding.
The new funding brings the total raised by the San Francisco-based proptech startup to $10.6M.
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The basis of VergeSense's tech is a ceiling-mounted sensor that generates data about where people are in an office environment and their congregation patterns, including how far apart they are.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the goal of such data collection was to encourage "workplace collisions," or close-quarter encounters among office workers to facilitate idea sharing, Tech Crunch reports.
The platform has now pivoted to data on how people are keeping apart, to help devise social distancing strategies as offices reopen, according to the company, which said its platform gets smarter with its recommendations over time.
“In the past, people collaborating was a good thing,” VergeSense CEO Dan Ryan told Crunchbase News. “But now we want the opposite.”
Toward that end, VergeSense has added extra features to its product, including a Wellness Dashboard that provides a Social Distancing Score and daily occupancy reports. It also provides a Smart Cleaning Planner that offers a map of frequently used areas in a workspace.
Other data that the platform generates in real time includes whether a floor or building is reaching certain occupancy levels, the better to control worker density.
Allegion Ventures, a fund established by security giant Allegion, led the investment, while proptech investors JLL Spark, Metaprop and West Ventures also participated in the round. In 2018, JLL Spark led an early round of funding.
Overall, proptech investment is down after a strong 2019. In Q1 2020, VC deal activity in the sector dropped about 45% year-over-year, with April data pointing to a Q2 drop-off.
Even so, proptech companies that offer products to help office spaces reopen in a post-pandemic environment have seen their business mushroom and have occasionally attracted the attention of investors.
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