South Africa’s AURA raises $4.7m Series A funding to expand its emergency service
South-African medical and security response platform, AURA, has raised $4.7m in a Series A funding round to scale its operations globally.
The round was led by MultiChoice Group (MCG) with participation from KLT Holdings and Buffet Investments.
Founded in 2016 by Warren Myers, Ryan Green and Adam Pantanowitz, AURA allows anyone to access the closest vetted private and public security and medical response unit to their location – anywhere, anytime – using a connected device such as a smartphone, a Bluetooth device or any internet-connected device. AURA uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to ensure that the closest responders are dispatched to a distress call, response times drop from an average of 30 minutes to as low as one to five minutes.
This year, on the back of an impressive growth trajectory, the company expanded operations to East Africa, using Kenya as its base. AURA opened an office in the UK this year to provide private security and medical response services to UK citizens.
By partnering with premium armed and emergency medical response providers, AURA has built a network of trusted and reliable response vehicles. The platform currently has about 400,000 active users on its network.
With a current staff strength of about 50 members, talent acquisition is set to be increased especially in the tech department.
“We are gearing some of the funding towards hiring top talent to head up each new region while growing teams in established regions – especially our tech team. The result is stronger relationships and value propositions for suppliers at all levels in the marketplace.” Ryan Green, co-founder of AURA said in a statement.
Warren Myers co-founder of AURA averred that the investment is the first step towards AURA’s vision of a safer future for all.
“Our hope is to become the centre repository for risk data – not only responding to emergencies but to proactively predict and deal with any type of violent crime, whether on a one-on-one scale or the size of a riot. The data is already available to do so, it’s just not centralised yet.”
Born out of the need to provide an efficient security system in South Africa, AURA is using its unique technology to combat the growing crime rate. The startup is currently South Africa’s leading security and medical response marketplace.
The marketplace uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to hone its system and ensure that the closest responders are dispatched to a distress call- medical or security.
Commenting on the funding round, Calvo Mawela, Group CEO of MultiChoice explained that AURA was a means to enhance their service offerings and promote economic development
“To accelerate the evolution of our ecosystem by offering additional value-added services to our customers, we are investing in scalable and innovative technology platforms like AURA. Not only does it strengthen our service offering and enhance long-term value creation for shareholders, but it also drives economic development and job creation.”
According to co-founder Ryan Green, the new funding deal presents an incredible opportunity for AURA to enter new markets and seamlessly ramp up operations.
South African security tech startup, AURA, expands to the UK