[ad_1]
Every day, there are approximately 650,000 emergency service calls through 911 for medical, police and fire-fighting badistance in the United States; and by their nature, these communications are among the most urgent communications we will ever make.
But ironically, in the age of smartphones, connected devices and the Internet, these 911 calls are also among the most obsolete – a typical emergency response center that always uses humans to inform them of the most important information. elementary about their problems. before anything can be operated.
A new generation of startups is emerging to bridge this gap and make emergency interventions more accurate and faster. and one of them today announces a major fundraising thanks to very strong growth. RapidSOS, a New York-based startup that is helping to increase the flow of information sent to emergency services along with a call for help, has raised an additional $ 30 million – funds that It will use to improve its product and start growing on more international markets.
At the international level, the potential is greater than that of the United States: while the United States sees 240 million calls a year to dial 911, this figure is globally 2 billion.
The funding – which comes about six months after the last $ 16 million fundraiser – is led by Playground Global, the venture capital firm and "startup studio" co-founded by the co-creator. Android Andy Rubin. Other participants in the round include a mix of previous and new investors (and many illustrious names): Highland Capital Partners, M12 (Microsoft Venture Capital Fund), Two Sigma Ventures, Strong Ventures, The Westly Group, CSAA IG, three former FCC Presidents and Ralph de la Vega, former Vice President of the Board and CEO of AT & T Business Solutions and International. This brings to $ 65 million the total amount collected by the startup.
Michael Martin, CEO and co-founder of RapidSOS, said the start-up did not disclose his badessment, but he told me of the company's staggering growth over the last year:
"We went from 10,000 users to 250 million," he said, pointing to the number of agencies and partners with which the start-up is integrating to provide more detailed information on the entire ecosystem of emergency services.
Partners on both sides of the RapidSOS market include Apple, Google, Uber, vehicle manufacturers, and other connected device and app manufacturers, who are integrating RapidSOS technology to provide the centers with 911 response more data, such as the location of the user and diagnostic details. help determine what kind of response is needed, where to go, etc. And on the other side, you have the emergency services that need this information to do their job and provide badistance.
RapidSOS offers several different products on the market. Its most popular system, the RapidSOS NG911 Clearinghouse, works either with existing software from a response center or via a web application. This product now covers some 180 million people in the United States, the company said.
At the same time, the RapidSOS API is used by a number of device and application manufacturers to transfer this information to the RapidSOS system. Thus, when a response center uses RapidSOS and a caller uses a device or an application with the built-in API with it, this information is transmitted.
The start-up also offers a rescue and recovery application called Haven. His profile was significantly improved after Haven became viral as a result of a succession of natural disasters in the United States.
Martin – who co-founded the company with Nicholas Horelik (now a Harvard and MIT graduate) after reporting being badaulted in New York – said he saw a great opportunity for RapidSOS , and even for emergency services in general, once we start to better distinguish between the mine of data that we can now collect with connected objects and the transmission of what is important for calls to be made. Emergency are more effective.
"Most emergency communications today use an infrastructure built between the 1960s and the 1980s, which means that if you need 911 but can not converse, you have problems. 911 does not even know your name when you call, "he said in an interview. "But today there is all this rich information and our job is to help make it available when you really need it."
(I should note that he spoke to me while driving on a highway, but he noted that the car in which he was was part of a RapidSOS pilot. Therefore in the event of an accident, the responders would at least be more aware of what happened … not a huge comfort but interesting.)
When you factor in the number of connected wearables, connected cars, and other inanimate objects that are now becoming "smart" via Internet-based controls, sensors, and wireless operating systems, you can see the significant potential to exploit it for this particular use case.
RapidSOS is not the only company to fill this gap in the market. Carbyne out of Israel launched a growth cycle earlier this year, led by Founders Fund as part of its first investment in an Israeli start-up, also aiming to put in place systems to provide more data to emergency responders.
(I should also point out that Carbyne was also born from the fact that the CEO was badaulted: the need really becomes the mother of the invention.)
"We are completely different from Carbyne," Martin said of the other startup. "They are trying to provide more modern software to the industry" – where companies like Motorola have long dominated – "and it's great to see new innovations in that." However, when we looked at the sector, we found that the challenge was not about the software, but the data provided.There is a lot of information available, but no data flow, which is limited by the response system. typical urgency at 512 bytes of data. "
He says that RapidSOS, in this regard, is working with several vendors, including Carbyne, to transmit this data.
And it is this agnostic approach that has caught the attention of Playground.
"RapidSOS is at the forefront of emergency technology and collaborates with companies like Apple, Google, Uber and Microsoft to transform emergency communications," said Bruce Leak, co-founder of Playground Global, in a statement. communicated. "We see endless possibilities for connected device data to improve emergency response and we look forward to working with RapidSOS to develop their lifesaving platform."
Source link
