Brivo makes first acquisition in 20-year history

BETHESDA, Md.—Cloud-based physical security provider Brivo made its first acquisition in company history this week, bringing on Parakeet, a provider of smart office and building solutions that first got its start in the vacation rental market in 2015.

Brivo President & CEO Steve Van Till noted that the acquisition allows Brivo to provide more “smart office capabilities” to its channel partners and end users, including sensors, thermostats, wireless locks and lighting controls.

“Our dealers understand that as long as they are only doing building access control and cameras, for example, that they can only have so deep of a relationship with a particular customer, so this gives them a more complete solution in their markets and allows them to have more options and services that they can sell,” Van Till told Security Systems News. “And, of course, it is a recurring revenue type of product, so that is s natural fit.”

Van Till said the acquisition also helps bolster the company's capability on the property management side, as Parakeet has “a great track record of providing highly reliable” remote management to widely dispersed properties.

“There is an intense interest on the property manager and developer side in developing more of a technology package for their buildings,” he explained. “Parakeet has a good market in vacation rental and similar property management type capabilities, so this also opens up the market in that direction for us.”

He continued, “There is a big opportunity on the rental side and access control is the No. 1 driver, especially when you look at package delivery, for example, which is one of the biggest headaches property managers have.”

The Parakeet product leverages cloud services, mobile apps, and an on-premise IoT gateway that provides connectivity to Z-wave sensors, locks, thermostats, lighting and other devices. An app enables property managers and security personnel to manage smart building infrastructure from one central dashboard, while collecting data to track, monitor and manage staff.

“Being able to provide our products through Brivo's international base of security dealers will give our customers the convenience of professional installation and ongoing service,” said Parakeet Founder and CEO Brad Huber.

The Parakeet platform will continue to be offered as a stand-alone solution for the Vacation Rental Market under the new name, Brivo Vacation Rental, and will be unified with Brivo's billing system. All current Parakeet customers will continue to be supported on the existing product, with options to add Brivo offerings to their current service plans.

All Parakeet employees will be staying on and Brivo is keeping the office the company has in Provo Utah, which “we see as an opportunity to participate in the talent pool on what they are now calling Silicon Slopes, just outside of Salt Lake City,” said Van Till.

Brivo is also open to other acquisition opportunities, he said, noting, “There are other parts of the market that we don't play in and we expect that doing acquisitions might be the best way to get into those.”