With stories of crime charges rising, safety groups understaffed, and false alarms overwhelming conventional programs, the necessity for smarter, extra dependable safety has by no means been extra pressing. Stepping as much as meet this demand, Hakimo, a Menlo Park-based AI safety startup, has introduced a $10.5 million Sequence A funding spherical to supercharge its mission of reworking bodily safety via autonomous, AI-powered monitoring.
Led by Vertex Ventures and Zigg Capital, with further backing from RXR Arden Digital Ventures, Defy.vc, and Gokul Rajaram, the newest spherical brings Hakimo’s whole funding to $20.5 million.
Meet the AI Operator: A Human-Like Autonomous Safety Agent
Hakimo has formally launched the AI Operator, a first-of-its-kind autonomous safety agent that may monitor cameras, detect intrusions, reply to incidents, and even challenge verbal warnings—similar to a human guard. However not like people, it by no means will get drained, by no means misses a body, and reacts inside seconds.
This isn’t your normal movement detection software program. On the core of the AI Operator is a robust mix of pc imaginative and prescient and generative AI, enabling it to not solely see but additionally perceive and reply to advanced eventualities described in pure language. Whether or not it is figuring out an individual loitering close to a restricted space or detecting tailgating at an entry level, Hakimo’s AI is constructed to interpret and act on safety occasions in actual time.
And when incidents escalate, Hakimo’s human-in-the-loop system ensures that skilled safety professionals step in to deal with essential threats—making a seamless synergy between machine intelligence and human judgment.
From Stanford Analysis to Actual-World Affect
Hakimo was based in 2020 by Sam Joseph and Sagar Honnungar, two Stanford-trained AI researchers who noticed a possibility to use the newest developments in machine studying to a stagnating business. Impressed by falling {hardware} prices, widespread surveillance digital camera deployment, and breakthroughs in pc imaginative and prescient, they constructed a group to rethink bodily safety from the bottom up.
The end result? A platform that integrates immediately with present ONVIF-compliant safety programs, requires no pricey {hardware} upgrades, and may be deployed throughout a number of websites in days—not months.
Why Now?
Conventional safety approaches are more and more unsustainable. Guards are costly, tough to rent, and infrequently unable to supply constant protection. Alarm monitoring companies are affected by false positives, inflicting delays or full lack of police response. Hakimo’s answer arrives at a time when companies are demanding real-time, dependable, and reasonably priced safety.
By combining AI pace with human reliability, Hakimo delivers a compelling various. For purchasers like Kia Santa Maria, the shift was speedy. “We acquired a drastic discount in trespassing proper after deploying Hakimo,” mentioned Rodrigo Duran, the dealership’s Basic Supervisor. “I now sleep higher at night time with the peace of thoughts offered by Hakimo’s AI agent.”
Scaling Throughout Industries
Hakimo isn’t only for high-security amenities. Its platform is already trusted by greater than 100 clients, together with Fortune 500 corporations, automotive dealerships, building websites, company workplaces, and self-storage amenities. The system has monitored over 5 million hours of footage and, in 2024 alone, prevented hundreds of safety incidents, assisted legislation enforcement in arrests, and even saved lives.
From tailgating detection (an often-overlooked bodily safety risk) to digital camera well being monitoring and automatic alarm triage, Hakimo gives actionable insights that conventional programs merely cannot match. Its software program not solely detects threats however prioritizes them utilizing True Alarm Chance scores—dramatically lowering false positives and operator fatigue.
A Platform Designed for the Future
Hakimo’s platform is engineered to evolve with its clients. The system can monitor a number of websites concurrently, combine with software program like ServiceNow, Slack, and even cybersecurity SIEM instruments, providing a unified interface that bridges the hole between bodily and digital safety workflows.
It’s a pressure multiplier for any enterprise trying to reduce prices with out compromising security. The truth is, clients report annual financial savings of as much as $125,000 when in comparison with conventional guard-based safety—and with median response instances of simply six seconds, it is simple to see why.
Buyers See a Class-Defining Alternative
“Hakimo is bringing ground-up technological innovation to the big however antiquated bodily safety business,” mentioned Piyush Kharbanda, Basic Associate at Vertex Ventures. “By coupling cutting-edge imaginative and prescient AI algorithms with the reliability of humans-in-the-loop, Hakimo delivers a 10x higher service at a fraction of the fee.”
For Ryan Orley, Managing Associate at Zigg Capital, the funding was private. “I turned a Hakimo buyer earlier than our agency’s funding. After finding out the safety monitoring ecosystem, our group concluded that Hakimo’s answer is extra sturdy and provides higher worth than every other know-how we encountered.”
The Street Forward
With contemporary funding and rising momentum, Hakimo is poised to guide a metamorphosis in how organizations strategy bodily safety. Its mission is formidable: to make safety proactive, clever, and seamless—eliminating threats earlier than they escalate.
“The safety business has lengthy been reactive and inefficient,” mentioned CEO Sam Joseph. “At Hakimo, we’re not simply enhancing it—we’re reinventing it.”
As threats develop extra advanced and budgets tighten, the necessity for AI-powered, autonomous safety brokers like Hakimo’s AI Operator is changing into not only a aggressive benefit—however a necessity.