The world has become an unsafe place. People are increasingly concerned about the security of their homes and places of work. The media only serves to amplify and propagate our fears. And people are now willing to pay a premium for their security and peace of mind.
That’s what Hitesh Malviya and Suraj Sunder, founders of Digital Gorkha, is betting on anyway. Digital Gorkha is a housing security system that implements visitor security policies in large residential campuses. The company uses technology to streamline the identification, authentication, registration, badging and monitoring of visitors.
The founders believe that there are several issues with manually noting down visitors in a log book and providing badges, which is the method currently adopted by most housing societies. The information noted down in a log is not verified, and can be freely read by anyone with access to the guard book. Badges too, are inconvenient, and often easy to forge.
Digital Gorkha aims to solve these problems. Residents can use Digital Gorkha to pre-register expected visitors and security guards can use it to register and track visitors. Visitor registration can be performed either at a guard or receptionist station or by using an optional self-registration kiosk. In less time than it typically takes to fill in the visitor logbook, Digital Gorkha verifies the visitor’s mobile number, captures the visitor’s photo, selects resident details, sends a visitor arrival SMS and web notification to the resident, and finally checks-in after resident confirms the visit.
Digital Gorkha also has other add on features. Recurring visitors are automatically identified by the system and don’t need to check-in again. Pre-registered visitors receive an email with the date and time of the meeting, along with information such as parking, elevator instructions, the Wi-Fi password, and even nearby coffee shops.
The company is currently operational in 10 societies, and is associated with names likes Bhojwani Homes, BK Jhala associates and the Siddhivinayak Group. The system costs 1.5 lacs for a society of 100 flats. The company has a development center in Mumbai and Marketing office in Pune, and a 20-strong team.
Digital Gorkha received $160K from an angel investor in March 2015, and is currently on the lookout for its next round of funding.