Earlier this year, Eagle Eye Networks and Brivo, both owned by Dean Drako, received a funding of US$192 million from SECOM, one of the largest investments in cloud physical security ever.
Earlier this year, Eagle Eye Networks (EEN) and Brivo, both owned by Dean Drako, received a funding of US$192 million from SECOM, one of the largest investments in cloud physical security ever. A portion of this money will go towards R&D in AI and cloud, which Drako said are “revolutionizing the video surveillance industry.” This article takes a closer look.
In May, EEN and Brivo
announced SECON had made a primary equity investment of $192 million in the two companies. Of this amount, EEN gets $100 million while Brivo $92 million. EEN is a leading global cloud video surveillance company. Brivo is a global leader in cloud-based access control and smart space technologies. SECOM, meanwhile, is one of the largest security integration companies in the world, according to Forbes Global 2000.
Significance of the investment
Drako explains the significance of the investment, which he said serves as a recognition for both companies’ efforts in two areas around which security is evolving –
cloud and
AI.
“Beyond the fact that this is one of the largest investments ever in physical security, and happening at a time when large funding rounds are rare, this investment is a reflection of the incredible opportunity in our industry: The cloud combined with AI is vastly improving what we can do with security cameras and access control. SECOM being an insightful giant in the industry realizes the importance of cloud and AI,” Drako said.
“As one of the largest security companies in the world, SECOM wants to stay at the forefront of technology and innovation. They watch the industry closely and they believe that cloud and AI represent the future of physical security. They did their research and determined that Eagle Eye Networks and Brivo are the market leaders in cloud physical security and they approached us about the investment,” he added.
‘Fundamentally changing the video surveillance business’
Indeed, cloud and AI are seen as twin growth engines for video surveillance. The benefits of cloud are manifold. In a true cloud video surveillance architecture, the cameras are connected directly to the cloud, in the process eliminating costs for equipment long associated with conventional security, namely servers and NVRs, among others, not to mention other operational and maintenance costs.
The cloud also provides powerful computing resources, which are conducive to the utilization of AI to perform a variety of security-related tasks, from smart search to the detection of suspicious individuals/vehicles. With smart search, for example, the user only needs to enter certain criteria, for example finding someone wearing a red shirt or black hat, and the system will retrieve all relevant footage fitting those criteria. In this regard, EEN has already released Eagle Eye Smart Video Search, which is available to all existing and new Eagle Eye Cloud VMS customers across the globe.
“I believe that the cloud combined with AI will fundamentally change the video surveillance business,” Drako said. “Today we are talking about AI-powered video search. The combination of cloud and AI for this is very powerful because the search keeps getting better – more accurate and more useful for businesses, schools and every organization. The cloud allows the deployment of the compute power to do this. It also allows the software and models to be continuously updated,” Drako said.
How EEN will use the money
The SECOM funding will provide support for EEN to further develop cloud and AI-related products and solutions. According to EEN, these will include worker safety monitoring, smart anomaly detection, natural language search and business analysis, among others.
“Efficient video search is a major upgrade, but it’s just the beginning. We are approaching the point where AI will watch the cameras for us and alert us when there’s a potentially dangerous situation so action can be taken. The investment accelerates our ability to bring cloud + AI technology and innovations to market,” Drako said.
“We are at a significant turning point. Customers are no longer going to be buying video surveillance systems. They are going to be looking for AI Security Systems. They will want something that uses AI and watches for the things they are worried about,” he added.
Furthermore, EEN will use the money to fund geographic expansion and enhance its enterprise features. The company will expand global operations in Japan, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East — countries and regions where Eagle Eye is growing as a result of large enterprise projects using AI-powered cloud video surveillance.
“Cloud and AI are revolutionizing the video surveillance industry, so the time is right for us to supercharge our AI product development and worldwide expansion with this major investment from SECOM,” Drako said.