AURA, a South African lifesaving know-how platform, has raised €13.5 million ($14.6 million) in Sequence B funding to drive its enlargement into the USA and broaden its international footprint, aiming to function in practically 50 nations inside two years.

The spherical was co-led by the Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF) and international enterprise capital agency Partech, bringing AURA’s whole funding to €21 million ($22.8 million). The recent capital will help product scale, deepen worldwide partnerships, and combine AURA’s emergency tech throughout a rising variety of consumer-facing purposes.

Based in 2017, AURA, which operates in South Africa, Kenya, the UK, and the U.S., presents emergency response companies by means of its sensible auto-dispatch and routing platform. The platform permits folks in emergencies to connect with emergency response through cellular apps and built-in panic buttons with the closest vetted non-public safety and medical responders.

“AURA addresses the problem that, historically, entry to non-public safety or ambulance companies is pricey and restricted to those that can afford month-to-month contracts and alarm methods,” Warren Myers, AURA’s founder and CEO, instructed TechCabal. “Our resolution democratises entry to security by enabling anybody with a telephone to entry speedy emergency response at an inexpensive subscription price.”

Aura operates a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) mannequin, charging a per-user, per-month subscription payment. The corporate companions with resellers and distributors corresponding to insurance coverage firms, safety firms, monitoring facilities, and app suppliers that provide entry to emergency response companies by means of white-labeled apps and panic buttons.

The corporate additionally companions with firms corresponding to Uber, FNB, Samsung, and conventional safety and ambulance firms to combine its know-how with armed response and ambulance firms, permitting them to monetise their idle capability by being accessible on AURA’s platform.

AURA is betting on the basic human want for security and the rising prevalence of cellphones, which permits them to democratise entry to emergency response companies at a low month-to-month value. The platform presently has 1.2 million paying subscribers globally. In South Africa alone, it estimates that 20 million cell phone customers fall inside its goal market primarily based on its ZAR 40–ZAR 50 month-to-month pricing ($2.20–$2.70), suggesting vital room to develop. 

“South Africa has an addressable market of 46 million cellular customers,” Myers stated. 

The emergency response market is rising quickly in each developed and rising economies. In South Africa, alarm response income is projected to succeed in $121.4 million by 2025, in response to Statista. The U.S., the place AURA is now prioritising enlargement, represents a $7 billion market, in response to Myers. 

“In markets just like the UK and US, police are stepping again from responding to unverified alarms owing to stress on time and sources,” he stated. “This creates an enormous alternative for personal sector gamers to fill the hole.”

AURA claims to have pioneered the on-demand emergency response market at scale in Africa and the U.Okay., and now desires to duplicate that momentum within the U.S., the place client security platforms are fragmented and largely tied to conventional alarm methods. The corporate plans to leverage partnerships with main tech manufacturers and insurance coverage suppliers to embed its know-how into telephones, wearables, and different sensible gadgets.

“Our targets are to make alarm verification sooner, houses and companies safer, and to assist legislation enforcement give attention to higher-priority incidents,” Myers stated.