In the frenzy of an emergency situation, people who call 911 are not always able to provide the exact address and street name that 911 dispatchers need to guide police officers, firefighters or emergency medical service professionals to the scene.
That’s where RapidSOS comes in. Over the past decade, the company has developed an intelligent safety platform that connects internet-enabled devices, like smartphones, smart watches, cars and home security systems, to first responders during emergencies.
RapidSOS is connected with more than 500 million devices and used by more than 90 tech companies, 50 public safety software vendors and 15,000 first responder agencies.
The NYC startup announced Tuesday that it raised $75 million, bringing its total funding to more than $250 million. With its new funding, the company plans to expand and improve its platform by exploring cloud, data science, mapping and video technologies.
“For a decade, we’ve had the privilege to learn from our nation’s first responders to build technology that supports their life-saving work,” RapidSOS founder and CEO Michael Martin said in a statement. “Hundreds of millions of lives are impacted each year by the heroism of these individuals, and we’re honored to have partners in this journey that share in a vision to transform safety, security and emergency response.”
The company, which previously raised an $85 million Series C round in February of 2021, has a team of 234 employees.
The recent funding round was led by NightDragon, an investment and advisory firm founded by cybersecurity veteran and former CEO of McAfee and FireEye Dave DeWalt.
“The RapidSOS team has worked diligently for more than a decade on its vision and technology platform to better enable public safety officials and technology companies to respond to emergency situations of all types,” DeWalt said in a statement. “The time for digital transformation in this sector has never been more important and NightDragon is proud to help accelerate this mission as an investor and help RapidSOS continue to change the world and save lives.”
