The scourge of mass shootings and gun violence in the U.S. needs no introduction.
Local AI security camera startup Athena Security secured a $5.5 million seed round led by Pathfinder, which is part of Founders Fund.
The deal also had the backing of about 40 angel investors.
Athena Security uses computer vision and other technologies to monitor and detect potential threats, such as someone carrying a weapon. It automatically sends an alert to authorities to expedite response. It also masks the people it captures on video to avoid profiling based on race and other factors before letting AI analyze the footage.
The new funding will help the company hire engineers to continue to build out new product features.
Athena Security was founded by CEO Lisa Falzone and COO Chris Ciabarra. They previously co-founded Revel Systems, a point-of-sale payments startup in which Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe acquired a majority stake in 2017.
Athena's system is being used by Archbishop Wood High School in Pennsylvania and Al-Noor Mosque in New Zealand -- its other clients remain unnamed (a common theme in security).
But there are many other customers.
Ciabarra told me by email that the company has nearly 1,000 cameras out in the field with thousands more being deployed at schools, businesses small and large, and places of worship.
The new technology comes at a time when security has become one of the -- if not the -- highest priority for many organizations as mass shootings and gun violence continue to climb. Tech has developed a variety of new ways to help prevent, detect and respond to these threats -- including gunshot detection and improved security cameras.
Athena Security's approach is different.
"We don't report sounds, we use AI cameras to report instantly the first moment a gun is drawn or crime is committed, that can make Athena Security a preventative tool or even a life saving tool because police can be on their way a significant amount of time earlier than once a gun is fired or a crime escalates and is reported by someone," Ciabarra said.
One of the ways Athena Security has set itself apart is by training its AI with trained actors who play out different scenarios that could lead to violence. The system, in turn, learns to identify real threats and avoid false alarms.
"The thing holding A.I. back was that a false positive means you can't be deployed, you can't have a system crying wolf," Ciabarra said. "So we thought about how to best/better train the A.I. brain, and, instead of having it watch action movies, we realized we needed to have trained actors making the moves and wielding the weapons in order to get up to the 99% accuracy level. After that, we had police and SWAT teams put the A.I. brain through its paces and now we're getting on-the-job training because every frame of every camera every minute is helping train the system to recognize everything more accurately."
Along with removing identifying information and taking proactive measures to preventing profiling, Athena has set out an ambitious mission.
“Our goal is to save lives and speed help to the scene of the crime,” Falzone said in a news release. “As more and more school principals, business owners and religious leaders thank us for adding this extra layer of protection to keep the people they serve safe, it’s an overwhelming feeling that we’re making a difference.”
