Swiftpoint is a technology development company with offices in New Zealand and the US, specialising in advanced Human Computer Interface (HCI) software and devices. The company’s technologies integrate mouse pointer and touch gesture inputs to enable users of tablets, notebooks, smartphones and PCs to intuitively combine the high accuracy and efficiency benefits of a mouse with the gesture functions now standard in modern operating systems.
Who We Are
Swiftpoint has filed patents worldwide, related to HCI innovations, many of these in the field of touch and gesture technology.
The Company is led by its Founder and CEO Grant Odgers, an inventor and entrepreneur with significant international experience. Grant built and tested his first “mouse and keyboard replacement” device 20 years ago and has since published many user interface research papers. His work received recognition by the Australian Computer Society and he has featured on CNN and BBC as an innovator of user interface devices.
Prior to founding Swiftpoint Grant worked at a wide range of companies including The Home Shoppers Network, U.S. Government Departments in Washington, D.C., and Air New Zealand. He also co-founded one of the first specialist video game stores in New Zealand and made it the largest store in the country.
In his role as the Swiftpoint CEO, Grant Odgers is supported by a professional Board of Directors including Mike Chisholm, a technology entrepreneur with a track record of building multi-million dollar businesses, and Dennis Row, whose background includes CEO roles in international technology companies and a top management positon in a prominent venture capital fund.
The Swiftpoint senior management team includes highly experienced professionals with decades of experience working in leading international companies including public companies listed on NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange.
| Over ten years ago software engineer and Swiftpoint founder Grant Odgers decided that his laptop’s touchpad was preventing him from being a truly mobile computer user. Grant, like many others he discovered, found touchpads to be very inaccurate and inefficient substitutes for a mouse. However, if he wanted to be able to use his laptop away from a table or desk, there was really no other alternative. So Grant slipped on his inventor’s hat, convinced some friends and venture capitalists to invest in his ideas and began working on a concept for a small, portable mouse that could actually be used on your laptop surface itself.
In 2008, the company introduced two revolutionary mice concept designs, the “Swiftpoint Slider” and “Swiftpoint Triped”, at CEBIT in Hanover, Germany. The CEBIT unveiling attracted enormous attention, including coverage by international media and interviews with the BBC and CNN. With this strong interest for the Swiftpoint products, in particular for the Swiftpoint Mouse, a decision was made to channel resources into launching this flagship product. |
| Our focus is on improving efficiencies. We believe that the current options of computer laptop touchpads and mice do not provide the most efficient or convenient experience for users, and we are striving to change this with the Swiftpoint Mouse. It has been a long journey that has included some serious investment in research and design, the development and testing of multiple product concept variations and many rounds of user testing. |
Grant is the founder and CTO of Swiftpoint and the inventor of Swiftpoint‘s technologies.
Grant has a passion for advancement in HCI (Human Computer Interaction). He built and tested his first “mouse and keyboard replacement” device 20 years ago and has since published many user interface research papers. In 2007 he received recognition by the Australian Computer Society and his paper was presented at the annual user interface conference held at the University of Ballarat. His inventions have received best of class recognition by the Wall Street Journal, and Popular Science magazine, and he has featured on CNN and BBC as an innovator of user interface devices.
Grant started his career as a Software Engineer. On completing a Business Computing Diploma majoring in COBOL he received the award for ‘most outstanding student’, and won a scholarship at the Unisys Linc Development Centre in Christchurch (now called ‘Jade Software’). He was employed under this same umbrella of companies for seven years.
During this time he was employed as a software engineer and project manager, working with a wide range of companies in many business sectors in NZ and the US, including, Air New Zealand, The Home Shoppers Network, and U.S Government Departments in Washington DC.
At the age of 26 he co-founded one of the first specialist video game stores in New Zealand. It fast became the largest store in the country.
Grant is married with three children and lives in a picturesque rural town on the outskirts of Christchurch, New Zealand. In his spare time you might find him playing indoor cricket, fishing with his son or tinkering about with the next idea he would like to introduce to the world.
What We Are Working On
In May, a major milestone was our delivery of The Z reward to our Kickstarter backers. A development project that started almost 4 years ago, and kickstarted almost 1 year ago to the day. What a journey – but we finally got there! We can’t wait to get backer feedback.
We’ll be making regular updates to the driver to enhance The Z’s performance, and are in the process of building up our Z Community to enable our users, to communicate with us and between yourselves about your Z experiences, ideas and any feedback we need to take on board. If you would like to jump on board, please feel free to signup and we will email you with the next steps.
We’re going to launch the Z to everyone from 12 June 2017 to coincide with the opening of E3 in Los Angeles – where we’ll be exhibiting and where you can meet both our Founder and CTO, Grant and our Customer Support anchor, Dan, both keen gamers themselves!
Meet Team
Michael is our leader and is charged with commercialising the company’s innovations out of New Zealand and into the wider world
Grant works on absolutely everything and has built up a specialised team to support him in getting his ideas into the end user’s hands
Ian coordinates our global operations, covering both our physical and digital product developments.
Dave is our digital and social specialist. Connect with him if you would like to connect with us.
Bryce is our customer and product support guy. He’s here to help when you need it.
Jackie works behind the scenes, manages a range of administrative duties
Blair is our Lead designer and engineer driving development of our products
Dan covers a wide range of account management, logistics and support.