Exclusive: Belfry books $12M for physical security billing and payroll
Belfry Software, a New York-based startup that provides a back-office platform for physical security providers, has raised a $12 million Series A, CEO Jordan Wallach tells Axios exclusively.
Author: Ryan Lawler
Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Belfry Software, a New York-based startup that provides a back-office platform for physical security providers, has raised a $12 million Series A, CEO Jordan Wallach tells Axios exclusively.
Why it matters: Physical security businesses employ dozens or even hundreds of officers at a time, but many have limited back-office resources.
Zoom in: Base10 Partners led the Series A round, which also included participation from existing investors Bienville Capital and Aglaé Ventures.
How it works: The company enables physical security firms to manage scheduling, timekeeping, operations, payroll and billing in a single all-in-one platform.
- "It's a margin-constrained industry, where on average there are about 100 employees at one of these companies, but only five in the back office to manage [the other] 95 folks out in the field," Wallach says.
Between the lines: Those back-office workers are tasked with managing shifts and call-offs, timesheets, security incidents, payroll and billing clients.
State of play: Wallach says that about half of the industry uses incumbent sector-specific software like TEAM Software, TrackTik or TrackForce.
- "The other half are usually cobbling together a number of different horizontal scheduling, time and attendance, and payroll solutions and exporting and importing data between them," Wallach says.
Yes, but: "The incumbent providers don't have dedicated payroll systems, so even if they're on an incumbent provider, they're using something different for payroll," he adds.
Follow the money: Belfry's biggest differentiator is payroll, which enables security firms to manage complex client contracts and officer pay rules.
- "Each contract in security guard services is negotiated independently, so you might have one contract billing at $25 an hour [and another] that bills at $28 an hour," Wallach says.
- Conversely, payroll is equally complex, with officers receiving different wages based on site location, time of day, overtime and holiday pay.
The big picture: "There are a million security officers employed by the industry nationwide, 8,000 of these businesses, and it's a roughly $50 billion market," Wallach says.