The investment was made public via news release today from Weatherford Capital, a Tampa, Fla.-based private firm founded in 2015 and a previous investor in gov tech companies. In May 2019, it committed $25 million to PayIt, which makes software to accommodate digital payments for government services; and in September 2019 it was a lead investor in a $51 million financing round for the cloud software company OpenGov, the largest funding round for that company to date.
Founded in 2017 and also based in Tampa, SOMA Global sells a public-safety-as-a-service cloud platform with modules for computer-aided dispatch, data interoperability, school safety, records and jail management.
“The law enforcement sector has an immense need to adopt modern, cloud-based technologies to help create more efficient and effective outcomes for first responders and the communities they serve,” said Will Weatherford, managing partner at Weatherford Capital, in a public statement. “The SOMA Global platform is adding significant value to its law enforcement partners by bringing their mission-critical technology functions into the cloud.”
SOMA Global Founder and CEO Peter Quintas said in a public statement that the company will use Weatherford’s investment and consultation for “product development and further scaling the business.”
The market for public safety tech has gotten increasingly competitive over the last decade-plus, and COVID-19 does not seem to have interrupted a spate of partnerships, integrations and investments. Recent multimillion-dollar investments include $21 million in June 2020 for the situational awareness platform RapidSOS, led by Transformation Capital, and $25 million last week for the call-handling platform Carbyne.
