Hakimo introduced immediately it has secured $10.5 million in Sequence A funding to broaden its autonomous safety monitoring platform. The Menlo Park-based AI safety startup’s spherical was led by Vertex Ventures and Zigg Capital, with participation from RXR Arden Digital Ventures and current buyers Defy.vc and Gokul Rajaram, bringing the corporate’s complete funding to $20.5 million.
The corporate’s flagship product, AI Operator — an autonomous safety agent that screens current safety methods, detects threats in real-time, and executes response protocols with minimal human intervention — arrives because the bodily safety trade struggles with staffing shortages, rising prices, and false alarm fatigue.
“Rising costs and the severe shortage of quality security guards are driving this shift,” defined Sam Joseph, Hakimo’s co-founder and CEO, in an unique interview with VentureBeat. “Companies save approximately $125,000 per year relative to a guard, so switching to Hakimo is a no-brainer to customers.”
AI safety brokers that detect any risk describable in phrases
In contrast to standard safety monitoring companies, Hakimo combines pc imaginative and prescient with generative AI to create a system that may detect any anomaly or risk that may be described in phrases.
“Hakimo’s AI Operator continuously ingests live video feeds from existing security cameras and other sensors such as alarm systems and door sensors,” Joseph stated. “Our AI Operator is trained to identify anomalies and threats—such as unauthorized personnel, tailgating, loitering, intrusion into restricted zones, or unusual behaviors.”
When the system detects a possible risk, it causes by pre-programmed response protocols, points real-time audio warnings by on-site audio system, and escalates to human operators solely when mandatory. This multi-layered strategy permits for complete safety protection at a fraction of the price of conventional guard companies.
The system’s capacity to work with current {hardware} serves as one other differentiator. “Companies can deploy Hakimo in just minutes, directly integrating with their existing cameras and hardware—no new infrastructure required,” Joseph defined.
How 24/7 AI monitoring outperforms conventional safety guards
Hakimo’s development addresses vital challenges going through conventional safety approaches, together with police departments declining to reply to unverified alarms and a labor disaster within the manned guarding trade.
“A guard physically cannot be at all places at all times, especially at places like campuses and large warehouses or even car dealerships,” Joseph stated. “Hakimo, on the other hand, monitors cameras giving complete 100% coverage as long as there are enough cameras present at the site.”
The CEO highlighted extra benefits: “Guards have to take mandatory breaks during their shifts whereas Hakimo’s AI Operator never takes breaks. Liability risk: Guards have a high risk of getting injured on the job, which causes a huge liability risk. Hakimo, with no on-site human presence, has no such risk whatsoever.”
The corporate has tripled its buyer base over the previous yr, now serving greater than 100 shoppers throughout industries together with multifamily residences, automobile dealerships, building websites, and Fortune 500 enterprises. In 2024 alone, Hakimo’s expertise prevented 1000’s of safety incidents, assisted legislation enforcement in a number of arrests, and even saved a life.
“Our AI Operator detected a person collapsing on-site in the middle of the night with no one around. It was then escalated to our human operators who immediately dispatched emergency services (911), ultimately saving the individual’s life,” Joseph defined.
Why buyers are betting hundreds of thousands on AI-powered bodily safety
The funding in Hakimo displays rising recognition that bodily safety requires technological reinvention as conventional approaches like guard companies and alarm monitoring more and more seem antiquated and cost-prohibitive.
With the brand new funding, Joseph plans to “expand and enhance our AI platform capabilities and scale operations to new markets and industries.” The corporate targets companies throughout a number of sectors that want environment friendly bodily safety options.
“Any business needing protection for physical assets or people benefits significantly, especially property management, car dealerships, construction sites, and campuses,” Joseph stated, citing examples together with a automobile dealership that eradicated month-to-month break-ins, a high-rise house constructing that saved practically 1,000,000 {dollars} on safety guard spending, and a scholar housing property that noticed incidents drop by 90% whereas lowering safety prices to a 3rd of conventional bills.
Creating the common platform for clever video monitoring
Hakimo was based in early 2020 by Sam Joseph and Sagar Honnungar, each Stanford-trained AI consultants with backgrounds in enterprise SaaS. They recognized converging traits: exploding digicam deployments, falling {hardware} prices, and speedy advances in pc imaginative and prescient.
Their imaginative and prescient extends past present functions: “In five years, Hakimo aims to become the universal platform for intelligent video monitoring and understanding, effectively creating and leading a new category within the physical security industry,” Joseph stated.
As AI continues to advance, Hakimo’s strategy might supply a preview of how clever methods will more and more increase — and in some instances exchange — human staff in safety and past.
“Our vision is that Hakimo will be the platform for all kinds of video monitoring,” Joseph stated. “Anyone should be able to connect any camera to Hakimo and say ‘look out for X and do Y when you see X happening.’”
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