The round is one of the largest ever pulled in by a gov tech company, and it was led by a venture capital firm used to making big bets on gov tech: the New York-based Insight Partners.
RapidSOS has achieved significant growth in recent years; according to a press release it operates in 4,800 emergency communication centers covering 92 percent of the U.S. population. Its core work involves using mobile phones, connected vehicle software, sensors and other data inputs to provide information to emergency responders so that they can arrive on scene faster and with better information.
“2020 reminded all of us of the heroic work that first responders do in our most challenging moments,” said RapidSOS CEO and founder Michael Martin in the statement. “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 company has steadily integrated with many partners to deliver that data, including SiriusXM, Apple and Callyo. Last year, it launched the Emergency Health Profile project to give people the ability to automatically send their medical information to emergency responders when they call 911.
The $85 million round brings RapidSOS’ fundraising total to about $200 million. Insight Partners, the leader on the latest round, previously led a $100 million funding for the government digital services company PayIt in 2019, as well as a $40 million round for the transit planning startup Optibus in 2018.
