In this Research Note, we examine the access control and visitor management business of Acre Security, a Dallas, USA-based buy-and-build company backed by private equity capital.

Founded in 2012 to acquire, partner or invest in specialized players in the physical security industry, acre offers a single platform of on-premises, cloud, and hybrid security solutions. This article updates our analysis of the company in January 2022.

In May 2022, Don Joos took over the helm as CEO from Joseph Grillo, who oversaw a track record of 11 acquisitions and 1 divestment and grew the company to over 500 employees worldwide with close to $300 million in revenue. Acre offers a broad array of solutions including access control, visitor management, intrusion, workplace, transmission, and connectivity solutions across the banking, education, healthcare, pharmaceutical, retail sectors. The business operates in more than 25 countries, with 50% of its revenues originating outside the U.S.

In March 2023, ACRE launched a new brand identity as Acre Security, the next step in a series of initiatives as the company becomes a single operating entity in a move that is intended to simplify day-to-day activities to support future growth and make Acre Security easier to do business with. ACRE’s family of companies operating as Vanderbilt, Open Options, RS2 Technologies, TDS (Time Data Security), ComNet and Razberi are all included in this rebranding.

Acre Security Acquisitions

In 2022 and 2023, Acre completed two further acquisitions, with the backing of Triton Equity Partners. In September 2022, the company acquired SISCO (Security Identification Systems Corporation), a West Palm Beach Florida headquartered provider of visitor management solutions for credentialing, compliance and tracking people, with a focus on several key verticals including airports, healthcare, education and cruise ships.

This is the second deal in the visitor management space. This acquisition complements the visitor management portfolio of Dublin-based TDS (Time Data Security), an Irish acquisition, completed in April 2021.

“While TDS’ workplace solutions have a strong footprint in the higher end of the enterprise market, SISCO’s solutions will help to round out their offerings for the rest of the SMB market”, Don Joos said.

In February 2023, the business completed the acquisition of the PremiSys software and hardware portfolio and assets from IDenticard. PremiSys’ technologies enable organizations to self-manage door access, view integrated video and lockdown facilities. The acquisition also extends opportunities for Acre security in healthcare, education, data centers, and senior living facilities.

Darren Learmonth, CTO, ACRE explained what PremiSys brings to the overall ACRE portfolio: “Although cloud and RMR are the future of the security industry, there is still a significant market share that prefers on-premises security software. With the acquisition of PremiSys, ACRE can tap into specific verticals where its current on-prem portfolio is not traditionally used. ACRE already has an excellent cloud offering and migration plan to migrate customers when they are ready to transition to cloud”.

Outlook for Acre Security

In September 2023, Acre Security “unveiled its robust growth trajectory in the first half of 2023, marked by a steady adoption of its cloud-based access control solutions, an expanding international reach, and continuous enhancement of its mobile solutions”.

Acre Security anticipates expansion into several high-growth markets, such as UAE, where it is introducing Feenics, an access control as a service (ACaaS) platform built specifically for and hosted in the public cloud.

Recognizing the specialized security needs of its vertical markets, in particular, the education sector, acre security has also refined its mobile applications to give schools comprehensive control over their security systems. Its mobile app presents real-time geo-map views, streamlines cloud mustering, and secures classroom access.

This article was written by Daphne Tomlinson, Senior Research Associate at Memoori.