Keynetics celebrates 10 years of smart key management
From supporting domiciliary care to securing access across some of Europe’s largest commercial estates
2026 marks a special milestone for Keynetics as the company celebrates a decade in business and looks back at how an idea that once raised eyebrows in some of the UK’s most security-conscious boardrooms has grown into a key management solution used across multiple industries and markets.
The company behind SentriGuard smart key management systems has spent the past decade challenging the way organisations think about physical keys and the role they still play in modern access control.
Today, Keynetics works across the UK and Europe, with its technology used in facilities management, security, banking, retail, property and other commercial applications. Getting there, however, has involved more than simply introducing a new piece of technology.
Where it started
When Keynetics was established in 2016, the opportunity looked rather different.
One of the company’s original target markets was local authorities using Keynetics solutions for domiciliary care provision, where access to people’s homes presents a very practical challenge. Carers need reliable access, often several times a day, while local authorities need to protect vulnerable residents and maintain oversight of who is entering their properties. It proved to be an important early application, leading to major contracts that were subsequently extended over the years.
As the technology developed, another opportunity began to emerge. Achieving recognised security certifications, including LPS 1175 and Secured by Design Police Preferred Specification, meant the system could address applications well beyond its original care market.
Void property security followed, where storing keys securely at the property could simplify access for inspections, maintenance and security teams. From there, the same principle began finding applications across facilities management and security services, followed by retail, banking and other commercial estates.
In many ways, the technology found its market by solving the same fundamental problem in very different environments: how do you make a physical key available where it is needed without losing control of who can use it?
“Are you mad?”
That proposition was not always an easy one to sell.
Stuart Wheeler, Managing Director at Keynetics and one of the company’s founding figures, recalls some of the early conversations with organisations operating in sectors with the strictest security requirements.
Stuart says, “We would go into meetings and talk about storing keys at the entrance to the building. You could almost see the reaction: ‘Are you mad?’”
Changing that mindset became an important part of Keynetics’ development. Rather than treating external key storage as a matter of convenience, the company focused on demonstrating how independently certified hardware, controlled access and a complete record of activity could provide a secure alternative to traditional keyholding arrangements.
Over time, the conversation changed too.
As organisations began looking more closely at the time, travel and administration involved in moving keys between offices, keyholders, security teams and contractors, remotely managed access increasingly became an operational question as well as a security one.
Growing beyond the UK
The launch of SentriGuard in early 2025 also coincided with Keynetics’ expansion beyond the UK. Alongside the new generation of hardware and Access+ software, the company began developing its presence in Central Europe and establishing partnerships with some of the major names in the FM and security sectors.
Today, Keynetics works across a considerably broader range of markets, with its growth supported by the wider international group behind the UK business.
Keynetics is part of a group that includes Keynetics International and SentriLock in the United States, where the hardware is designed and assembled and the group’s software development takes place in-house. The relationship gives the UK and European business access to the engineering and development capabilities of a much larger international operation, while Keynetics has developed applications for the technology within its own markets.
Reflecting on Keynetics’ growth across Europe, Scott Fisher, CEO of Keynetics and SentriLock, said “We knew there was a worldwide application of our unique access management technology, and that has been proven as companies increasingly need solutions to improve efficiency, strengthen oversight and support regulatory compliance.”
He added, “SentriLock and Keynetics are continuing to build trusted solutions to the previously difficult-to-solve challenges to managing keys that other providers in our space have missed. It has been a challenging and exciting past ten years, and we are poised for the future.”
Ten years, celebrated differently
There will, of course, be cake. Yet rather than making its anniversary entirely about Keynetics, the team has decided to use the milestone as an opportunity to give something back.
To celebrate, the Keynetics team will take part in a series of charitable activities supporting local communities and people in need, ranging from donations to food banks and animal shelters to litter picking and supporting homelessness charities.
Stuart comments: “We believe it’s a fitting way to mark ten years for a business whose direction has changed considerably since 2016, even if the principle behind it has remained remarkably consistent: making sure the right people can get to the right key when they need it, without compromising security.”
And perhaps one of the more satisfying measures of how far Keynetics has come is that the question Stuart remembers from those early meetings is heard rather less frequently these days.
Storing the keys at the entrance? As it turns out, perhaps it wasn’t such a mad idea after all.
