Lighthouse.io

In 2014, three founders from a digital solutions agency, Ben Howden, Patrick Carne, and Tony Milne, saw an opportunity. They realized that while many platforms could manage employee tasks, none effectively addressed location, especially for workers in large, sprawling facilities like airports, malls, or corporate campuses. This led to the creation of Lighthouse.io, a workforce management platform using Bluetooth beacons and GPS to track and interact with employees in real-time. The platform replaced paper forms and tick sheets with a mobile app. Managers could use a web console to see where their cleaning, security, or maintenance staff were, send them location-specific task lists, and receive real-time alerts. This move from analog to digital provided a clear view of the workforce, helping to optimize routes and ensure tasks were completed on schedule. The company gained early traction, notably with a partnership with the large Australian facilities provider, Spotless, to manage its cleaning workforce across various sites. After raising over $1 million in seed funding, Lighthouse.io was on a solid growth path, solving a tangible problem for an often-overlooked segment of the workforce. The journey took a significant turn in May 2019 when Lighthouse.io was acquired by TEAM Software, a major provider of technology for the janitorial and security industries. The acquisition was a natural fit, combining TEAM's deep industry expertise with Lighthouse's innovative mobile-first location technology to create a more comprehensive solution for managing field-based teams.