Big-four bank Nedbank has made an undisclosed equity investment in technology-led emergency response platform RapidDeploy.
The bank says it is the first South African firm to invest in RapidDeploy, which was established in South Africa after its founders Steven Raucher and Brett Meyerowitz experienced the antiquated, legacy technology that was available within the country’s public safety sector.
1n 2019, RapidDeploy raised $12 million (R169 million) in a series A funding round from venture capital firms GreatPoint Ventures and Samsung NEXT Ventures.
The company provides a cloud-based call-taking and computer-aided dispatch platform that aims to simplify the complexity of emergency dispatch and reduce response times.
The system provides precise address location, improved situational awareness and allocation of appropriate resources for optimised response, using the internet of things; cloud computing, mobility and online mapping mobile field service apps; and advanced incident management tools.
In a statement, Nedbank says Raucher experienced a personal tragedy when his brother drowned at sea and, to honour him, he volunteered for the National Sea Rescue Institute of South Africa.
This is where he came to realise the emergency tools available could not achieve what was needed to respond to people and ultimately save lives in an urgent and efficient manner.
According to the bank, Meyerowitz came to the same conclusion as a volunteer paramedic around the same time and RapidDeploy was born, with the primary purpose of saving lives through reduced response times.
Johann Van Zyl, head principal and alternative investment at Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking, says the bank’s decision to invest in RapidDeploy was based on the strong alignment of the company’s innovation-led business model with Nedbank’s policy of investing in businesses and technologies that can deliver sustainable positive impact.
“At Nedbank, we recognise there’s far more to technology than just enabling customer engagement or helping to build a business,” Van Zyl explains. “The fact that RapidDeploy technology is literally saving lives means this venture capital technology investment gives good effect to our Nedbank purpose of applying our financial expertise to do good.”
Since moving its headquarters and primary focus to Austin, Texas, in the US, RapidDeploy has partnered with nine states and numerous local emergency communications centres to bring modern technology to public safety across the country, says Nedbank.
It notes that stories are regularly received from customers, in which they share the impact of the technology via specific examples of incidents in which it has helped to save lives.
For example, in Kansas, where a caller had a stroke and couldn’t talk; and in Navajo County, Arizona, where a kidnapping victim was rescued; or in Sarasota County, Florida, where a caller was located during a hurricane, and many other compelling customer stories, it adds.
In 2018, American telecommunications conglomerate AT&T announced it was teaming up with RapidDeploy to provide 911 centres access to RapidDeploy’s cloud-based platform.
Since then, RapidDeploy says it has assembled a core team of US-based public-safety industry leaders, encouraging the opening of its global headquarters in Austin.
RapidDeploy has also partnered with Samsung to build a mobile-responder technology.
While headquartered in the US, Nedbank points out that RapidDeploy sticks to its roots, with part of its engineering and product teams based in South Africa.
“The investment from Nedbank shows continued focus on these teams bringing revolutionary technology to public safety,” says the bank.
RapidDeploy is currently focused on public safety in the US, but getting additional investment from global firms opens up possibilities to take the technology to other parts of the world, it adds.
“We are honoured that Nedbank has chosen to invest in RapidDeploy,” says Raucher, co-founder and CEO of RapidDeploy.
“As our first South African institutional investor, Nedbank ensures our continued investment in our teams in South Africa and enables us to expand and grow.”
Van Zyl points out the investment in RapidDeploy is in keeping with Nedbank’s venture capital mandate to invest in, and partner with, disruptive, category-defining technology companies.
“As an on-balance-sheet investor, our venture capital approach is highly strategic, and we prefer to work closely with our investee companies,” he says. “So we are looking forward to supporting RapidDeploy’s future growth and expansion as the opportunities present, particularly given that their success and growth will ultimately translate into even more lives saved.”
The investment by Nedbank and other venture capitalists ensures RapidDeploy can continue to develop the modern technology needed to complete its mission to save lives with reduced response times and make a difference in communities around the world, it notes.
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