Smart Spaces was awarded Santander Business of the Year at the Growing Business Awards 2023 – an event that honours UK entrepreneurs with outstanding achievements. Now in its 26th year, the Growing Business Awards took place at an exclusive gala and dinner ceremony on Wednesday, 29 November, at the Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square in London.
Smart Spaces is a UK developer of smart building software for commercial real estate. Its Smart Building OS platform and app deliver two core functions – simplified day-to-day operational management of buildings to boost energy efficiency and save cost, and an intuitive smartphone-based app for people to use for building entry, to book desks, meeting rooms, parking or to access a host of other services.
A project you might be familiar with from Smart Spaces is 22 Bishopsgate in London. This is Europe’s first Apple Wallet integration for access control, partnering with a trusted identity provider HID. This makes it quicker and more convenient for workers to use the Smart Spaces app to gain access to the building – and its facilities – as the employee badge and credential required for door entry are ‘saved’ in Apple Wallet. Leveraging HID Mobile Access, means staff do this using their iPhones or Apple Watches.
Smart Spaces won because the judges were impressed by how much it had grown in such a short period of time. Its intelligent building operating system (OS) is leading the market, helping customers meet their ESG goals, and has subsequently established the UK as a world leader in smart building delivery.
Smart Spaces’ chief executive officer Dan Drogman says, “Our ambition is to be the world’s leading smart building operating system for commercial real estate. We’re rapidly realising this goal, as evidenced by our recent business performance and the future pipeline of projects we’re working on. Winning the Santander Technology Business of the Year at the Growing Business Awards makes us extremely proud, given it’s a respected external third party highlighting and endorsing what we’ve achieved.”
Key success highlights
- Over 65 million sqft of global office space is now managed through its software platform;
- 30% reduction in building energy emissions achievable in the first year on average through the use of the Smart Spaces OS;
- Operations worldwide, with projects in 26 countries, including Hong Kong, Dubai, Paris and New York;
- New office opened in Prague this year to target mainland Europe;
- A strong foothold in the UK with prestigious customers, including AXA, CBRE, The Crown Estate, GPE, JLL, Hines, Landsec, Lewis Silkin and Santander. Smart Spaces’ software is used in some of the most celebrated developments in London – for example, 22 Bishopsgate, Bankside Yards, Hanover Square, Paddington Square and 1 Berkeley Street – but further afield in Manchester (The Noma neighbourhood) and Leeds (Wellington Place).
- Other major new operating system developments include integration with Charge Point. This enables people to quickly find the closest EV charging stations for their cars – directly from the app.
