According to the company’s news release today, the biggest share came from a health-care equity fund called Transformation Capital, along with C5 Capital and Laerdal Million Lives Fund, a global fund focused on reducing mortality rates. They brought RapidSOS to a fundraising total of $107 million to date, which, like last year’s $25 million haul and the $30 million raised in 2018, will go toward expanding the company’s footprint.
“RapidSOS will use the funding to extend its work with 4,700+ public safety agencies globally,” the news release said.
The company’s core product is a data platform that collects information from IoT devices, personal apps, profiles and other sources and gives it to emergency responders in real time, so they know as much as possible about who and what they’re responding to.
Through various partnerships and integrations with public safety agencies, software providers and IoT companies, the scope of RapidSOS’s work has widened considerably since its inception in 2013. Today, the company says it shares data from more than 350 million connected devices directly with first responders covering more than 90 percent of the U.S. population, answering 150 million emergencies a year nationwide. On its website, RapidSOS lists several gov tech companies as partners including Callyo, Carbyne, Mark43 and Motorola Solutions, all of which have their own IoT tools for on-the-ground intelligence during emergencies.
“First responders are doing incredible work during this unprecedented pandemic,” said RapidSOS CEO Michael Martin in a statement. “With this funding, we can further connect health information from the patient in need, to first responders on scene, all the way to hospital systems, driving our mission to create a safer, stronger future where technology and people work together to save lives.”
Like Martin, Transformation Capital Managing Partner Todd Cozzens alluded to the future possibility of sharing health information about 911 callers directly with hospitals.
“Prior to RapidSOS, most emergency medical treatment had to occur without even knowing the patient’s name, much less any other data about the patient,” Cozzens said in the statement. “RapidSOS has transformed the way we respond to emergencies and we are excited to help them extend that reach into healthcare.”
