Senior Vice President, Chief Corporate Strategy and Business Development Officer, Allegion
Allegion Ventures: Introducing the Fund
Meet Rob Martens, Wade Sheek, and Doshia Stewart, the leadership team for Allegion Ventures, as they talk about the new ...
About Robert Martens
Rob Martens, Senior Vice President, Chief Corporate Strategy and Business Development Officer at Allegion, has been involved in Allegion Ventures, the company's corporate venture fund, and has discussed the company's approach to innovation and partnerships. In a July 2025 video, Martens and Allegion Ventures Managing Director Bobby Prostko spoke about their partnership with Ambient.ai, describing the relationship as "foundationally structured in our values" and "not a transactional relationship." Martens said the partnership focuses on shared passions, particularly school security, and that Ambient.ai's "unparalleled Market access" in that vertical is valuable for deploying proactive security. In earlier appearances, Martens has described his role as a "futurist" for Allegion, which he defined as "identifying these trends and then creating a relevant narrative for our business around it that allows us to plan a scenario plan or position ourselves so we don't get surprised by things." He has emphasized three criteria for evaluating connected devices: security, scalability, and simplicity. Martens has also stated that Allegion Ventures aims to "foster and develop new technology" and "invest in founders and their companies to drive progress in our space," and that the company provides access to security experts beyond just funding.
Transcript (13 segments)
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Doshia Stewart0:00
Hi, I'm Doshia Stewart. Chief Marketing Officer of Allegion Ventures, and today I'm joined by our Managing Principal, Wade Sheek, and also the Allegion Ventures President, Rob Martens, who's one of the most influential leaders in the Internet of Things as evidenced by Accenture, by Forbes, and Inc magazine. Come join us.
So Rob, why create a fund?
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Robert Martens0:26
Well, Allegion has a strong desire to stay on the leading edge of discovery really in the context of how real people live and work. So with the fund, we want to do two things: we want to foster and develop new technology, but we also want to invest in founders and their companies to drive progress in our space.
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Doshia Stewart0:48
So let's think about that. What type of companies are you looking for?
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Wade Sheek0:52
Well, Allegion Ventures invests in companies that are really poised for growth. These are companies that have products and technologies that go beyond your, kind of, typical approaches to make security and access smarter, stronger, faster, and hopefully, a lot less intrusive.
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Doshia Stewart1:10
And what we're looking for are those companies that are thinking about technology in a different way. They're re-imagining access. They're rethinking security and changing the way that we interact with the world around us. They're introducing these new technologies and new ideas that are creating less friction in the world. Less friction in our daily lives. There's these technologies that are being introduced that make the world more secure but more convenient at the same time and they're doing this by focusing on the user experience. How is the user interacting with technology? How are they interacting with the world around them so that as they adopt these technologies they become a seamless part of their every day life. Yes, so it sounds like it really is that virtuous circle, if you will, of stronger, smarter, faster, and less intrusive. Yes. So let's talk a little bit more. Let's dive a little deeper on that. Why is it so important that we achieve those things with security?
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Robert Martens2:13
It's important, Doshia, because people and assets, no matter where they are, they deserve to be secure each and every day. As we look into the market, there are solutions out there that make the world safer, but they're often viewed as too difficult to use, create barriers to everyday life. So what we're excited about, as we look into the market, are those new technologies and ideas that are reducing these barriers and it's really those technologies that are focused on the user experience, that are focused on the individual, how they interact with the technology, how they interact with the world, so that as these technologies are introduced, they become a seamless part of their life.
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Doshia Stewart2:56
So Rob, why don't you describe for me, what's your vision? What does that look like when these technologies that Wade just talked about, when that really comes into being? What does that look like?
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Robert Martens3:08
Well, we're all familiar with a key. Where I think we're going, and I think we all agree on this, at the end of the day, we want the end user, we want the consumer themselves, to be the key. So we're looking for solutions and technologies that make things flow, that make things less intrusive, and that make things more intuitive. So that can be any variety of things. You may leverage blockchain or distributed ledger, you may leverage some new protocol or some new technology. All of those can contribute to a much broader narrative about safety and security and really contribute to the well-being of people in their every day lives. That's what we're looking for.
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Doshia Stewart3:51
That's pretty exciting. I mean this idea of just seamlessly flowing through your life and having everything you're interacting with react to you and anticipate you. You know, that's pretty dynamic.
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Robert Martens4:04
It is very dynamic. And I think one of the things that we can offer as Allegion, is a level of expertise and experience that maybe some other people haven't had in our space. So that might be where we can go beyond funding, right? Yeah, exactly. Allegion isn't only providing funding to these companies, what we provide is access to a company who has thought about security and safety for a hundred years. This is a company of experts, who daily think about these ideas who are constantly thinking about these same issues of how do you provide a convenient experience while also providing a maximum level of security. So as you partner with Allegion Ventures, what you have is, you have access to some of the top security experts in the world. What you have is the ability to accelerate your understanding of the market and gain credibility for not only entrepreneur but for the product, the technology that they're introducing through the relationships that we have. This is a unique value that we bring that many other VCs don't because they're just there to provide money, but we provide a whole support system that can help accelerate the entrepreneur's vision and what they're trying to achieve.
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Doshia Stewart5:22
We all know that technology can be an amplifier. So technology can be an amplifier for something really great or it can be an amplifier for something really bad. And so Allegion is a company of experts that understand how to apply the technology in the security and safety and asset management space. And that's a unique value, and so we're actively looking for entrepreneurs, founders, companies that have the same passions and we're looking to add some value to them and hopefully either commercialize their products faster, or get that progress into the market as soon as we can.
So, in summary, the most important things to remember about Allegion Ventures is first, we're here to fuel growth. We invest in companies that go beyond the traditional approach. Companies that are helping to make security and access smarter, stronger, faster, and less intrusive. And we're experts on a global scale, here to help you scale and grow your business. So we hope you will start a conversation with us at allegionventures.com.