RapidSOS, creator of an emergency response data platform, has closed USD85 million in a Series C funding round led by global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners.
Insight is a leading software investor with over USD30 billion in AUM after announcing its 11th flagship fund, Fund XI at USD9.5 billion in April, 2020. The investment, which brings RapidSOS’s total funding to USD200 million, will advance the company’s work to connect emergency data from digital health, smart buildings, security, connected vehicles, and app companies with first responders globally.
The RapidSOS Platform powers 4,800-plus Emergency Communications Centers (ECCs) across the US, covering 92 per cent of the population, and is integrated with over 350 million connected devices. These devices, recognised as RapidSOS Ready, transmit real-time location, health and medical information, connected building and alarm data, and more in an emergency.
“2020 reminded all of us of the heroic work that first responders do in our most challenging moments,” says Michael Martin, founder & CEO of RapidSOS. “We spent the past eight years building the RapidSOS emergency response data platform in partnership with thousands of first responders — collaborating with leading technology companies to provide the right data, at the right place, at the right time to save lives across over 150 million emergencies annually.”
The new funding supports RapidSOS’s mission to link connected devices to first responders globally when we need it most — providing a life-saving ecosystem of safety, security, and digital health. For example, the RapidSOS Platform connects crash impact and occupant data from the following sources with 911 and first responders in an emergency: connected vehicles, critical health and medical information from medical profiles, wearables and devices, and connected building/alarm, address, sensor, and multimedia.
“Insight has a history of backing category-defining companies, and RapidSOS has all the makings of one in the emergency response space,” says Nikitas Koutoupes, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “We are excited to have our team of software ScaleUp and platform experts help drive RapidSOS’s mission.”
This past year put a spotlight on the importance of faster and more effective emergency response. The need for critical, life-saving data was never more apparent than in 2020 when the world faced unprecedented emergencies, including the Covid-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and domestic threats like the Christmas Day Nashville bombing.
Data from the RapidSOS Platform was used in over 150 million emergencies during the calendar year (on average, 400,000+ per day) and in some cases became the critical link between citizens and first responders when traditional voice 911 circuits went down in major disasters or attacks.
Facing the global pandemic, RapidSOS worked to accelerate the connectivity between health data and 911.
Millions of Americans are able to share important medical information with 911 through the Medical ID feature on an iPhone. When a user chooses to set up the feature, the information is shared when making an emergency call or using the Emergency SOS feature, in supported regions. In addition, in collaboration with the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association, and Direct Relief, RapidSOS launched the Emergency Health Profile, a simple and free way for anyone to share their health data with 911.
With the support of Insight Partners and existing investors, RapidSOS plans to accelerate its partnership with first responders globally, supporting their life-saving work with critical data from hundreds of millions of devices.
