Dutch start-up GRASP Innovations has raised €550,000 ($670,000) 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. The company offers an advanced radar system in combination with proprietary developed software that is GDPR compliant.
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.
GRASP’s security solution can automate repetitive tasks currently performed by security personnel, such as the manual surveillance at access controls. It 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.
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 system helps airports to address this need and accelerates the transition to fully autonomous processes. Although GRASP mainly focuses on aviation, the company also caters to other industry customers that deal with security operations, such as banks or other high value environments.