London-based software and accreditation specialist, Accredit Solutions, has raised a significant sum of funding from angel investor Andy Center, ex-CEO of CloserStill Holdings Ltd.
Accredit Solutions will use the financing to continue expanding its global reach into Australasia and the USA, accelerate product innovation, development of a client resource centre, expansion of its account management team, and the launch of Accredit 365 – a new product focusing on day-to-day contractor management.
Recently celebrating its second birthday as a stand-alone company, Accredit Solutions’ pioneering accreditation software has been rapidly adopted by stadium operators and tournament organisers across the world.
The last 12 months has seen the accredit platform process over 2.1 million accreditations for major Premier League Football Clubs, The Rugby Football Union, New Zealand Rugby Union, Cricket Australia, The Brits Awards, and the International Cricket Council to name a few.
“Accredit Solutions’ goal is to improve operational efficiencies and security at stadiums and major events through the provision of a best-in-class accreditation platform. This capital gives us the resources to expand quickly into new markets and innovate rapidly to ensure our software remains one of the most sophisticated, secure and trusted accreditation platforms for major events worldwide,” says Accredit Solutions Co-Founder and CEO, Peder Berg.
Illegal workers, terrorist groups and increasingly, the Insider Threat, mean it has never been more important to know exactly who is working at your event or venue. But the number of workers, contractors and volunteers who need access can often run into the thousands and doing background checks, collecting documentation, producing badges and controlling access for everyone can quickly become an unsurmountable challenge.
The Accredit platform provides a highly efficient and GDPR compliant way to collect data, store documentation, set access controls and produce accreditation passes to significantly reduce the risk of a security breach, and avoid substantial fines for employing illegal workers.
Berg adds: “The Accredit platform has always been developed in association with advice offered by the UK’s top counter-terrorism and security experts and we are honoured to have been able to help some of the world’s largest event, venue and stadium operators overhaul the way they operate their accreditation to improve operational efficiency and security. With this investment we are thrilled to be able to expand our services with the launch of new products, geographical expansion and growth of client services and development teams.”
As part of its expansion, the firm recently took up residence in a new office development in Brixton, South London, and appointed events and security expert, Nicola Greenaway-Fuller, as their permanent Managing Director.
“It’s extremely rare to come across a team as good as this with an idea as smart as this who execute as well as Accredit do, here and internationally: great people delivering a genuinely valuable and important service to knowledgeable and appreciative customers. In business it doesn’t get much better than that and, frankly, it’s a privilege to join them on their great adventure and to attempt to contribute in some small way,” says Andy Center.
Prior to running CloserStill Holdings Ltd, Andy Served as Managing Director of Ithaca Business Media Ltd and Penton Media Europe, where he led Penton’s strategy to build out a European and international business from its UK hub.
Founded in 2017 by Peder Berg, Mark Elliott and Rob Morley, Accredit Solutions is a spin-out from Event Advantage Solutions, where the team had over 15 years of experience building world-class registration systems for live events around the world.
Commercial and financial due diligence for the transaction was conducted by Armstrong Transaction Services. Legal advice for the investor was provided by Kerman and Co.