Spike Global is a UK-based PropTech company that creates software designed to keep residents and workplaces connected.
How did you come up with the idea for the company?
After being in the video games business for over 20 years, it was time for a change and with the launch of the iPhone in 2007 it was clear to me that these devices were not just going to be used to check the weather or make phone calls.
The video gaming industry was in its very early stages when I first started out, which made it an exciting industry to be involved with as it was changing so quickly. The PropTech world, 9 years ago, was very similar. There was a huge desire to embrace new ways of doing things through technology and that’s how we saw an opportunity to get involved. The one thing that producing games taught me is that the overriding factor for success is the user experience and this applies to enterprise software as well.
For years, developers have built software with no regard for the user experience, with many unusable applications on the market. Our mission at Spike Global was to bring usability to software for not only the admin team but also the user which is reflected across all of our user portals.
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How has the company evolved during the pandemic?
With communication and community being such a key part of operating a building’s assets, our software has made that process extremely manageable. We have seen an uplift in usages by over 600%, which completely substantiates our market vision and continued growth.
During the pandemic, we have seen incredible acts of kindness, with residents using the Spike Living app to connect with their neighbours. We’ve had people offering to collect their neighbours food or prescription if they are self-isolating to residents baking and leaving their goodies in reception to share with their community. Being able to connect people during these difficult times has been really amazing to see. At Spike we have always championed the importance of community engagement, but interestingly, what we’re seeing now is a shift from it being viewed as a luxury to being seen as a necessity. We’re seeing this attitude shift in both residents and operators.
We realised quite early on that the shift to remote and flexible working was going to be here to stay, so we decided to re-launch Spike Workplace, our commercial software. The application supports a ‘blended’ way of working, where employees cycle between in-office and remote working, and offers features such as room booking and hot desk booking services and visitor management systems.
What can we hope to see from Spike Global in the future?
We believe that every building, whether it’s commercial or residential, will have to have some sort of online residents’ portal within the next five years. We will continue to push the envelope of technology with plans for smart buildings solutions like touchless entry to buildings and lifts. Our portal will become a conduit for a number of third party software providers to reach out to their users. We see our company experiencing high growth with moves into Europe and North America.
