AURA, a lifesaving technology platform making emergency response services more accessible and affordable, has raised a €13.5 million Series B funding round co-led by the Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF) and Partech. This latest round, which brings AURA’s total funding to €21 million, will fund the company’s expansion into the United States and the development of a global “clearing house” to dispatch emergency response without borders.
AURA was founded in 2017 by Warren Myers, Ryan Green, and Adam Pantanowitz in South Africa. Since then, AURA has been democratizing access to emergency response services worldwide through its smart auto-dispatch and routing platform. The technology enables people in emergencies to connect instantly with the nearest vetted private security and medical responders, making lifesaving help available anywhere, anytime.
AURA’s expansion to the United States is poised to transform the security response industry by providing fast, reliable, and cost-effective on-demand security response solutions. AURA leverages cutting-edge technology to aggregate existing security fleets and enable rapid response times, greater operational efficiency, and transparency, while addressing the increasing demand for private security as a vital alternative to under-resourced police forces.
“This funding marks a pivotal moment for AURA,” says Warren Myers, Founder and CEO of AURA. “Having built a profitable and trusted presence in the UK and Africa, we're now ready to take personal safety global. Our mission is to make access to life-saving services seamless, borderless, and available through a single API — empowering individuals and the platforms that serve them. We have also kicked off our on-demand private security response model in the United States. Our goals are to make alarm verification faster, homes and businesses safer, and to help law enforcement focus on higher-priority incidents. I'm incredibly grateful to our partners and customers for their ongoing trust — and most importantly, to my exceptional team. Their dedication to our vision of a world where everyone feels safe is the true driving force behind everything we do.”
“Having been involved in AURA's remarkable story for the past two years, strengthening our partnership via this follow-on investment came as a natural decision to us,” comments Patricia Rinke, Investment Director at CAIF. “We trust the team’s powerful vision and extraordinary execution capabilities as it scales its life-saving technology to the U.S. market and across the world. We are equally thrilled to welcome Partech as partners in our joint mission to make emergency response universally accessible.”
"AURA has been one of the most innovative players globally in the emergency response and security industry,” says Matthieu Marchand, Principal at Partech. “We are very excited to see such innovation built in South Africa and now successfully winning across the world. It's only the beginning."
AURA’s mission aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to health and safety. AURA’s work contributes to developing safer communities (SDG 11) and improved health outcomes (SDG 3) by improving emergency response access. Since its foundation in 2017, AURA has saved over 7,500 lives via its medical and security services. 1.2 million people currently have access to AURA’s personal safety solution and 200,000 properties are secured via its fixed location services.