Hakimo founders Sam Joseph and Sagar Honongar
Hakimo
The video ignores warnings that two young men have broken into the school basketball court and are trespassing through speakers. Within minutes, two security guards will arrive and escort you from the property. This is a recording of real-life scenes you can see yourself on the social media feed of San Francisco-based startup Hakimo. It publishes regular “Catch of the Week” videos to highlight remote security technologies powered by artificial intelligence.
“We offer all the benefits of on-site security guards at a cost,” said Sam Joseph, co-founder and CEO of Hakimo. “Our intelligent AI agents understand and respond to threats like never before.”
It could potentially be the right service at the right time. Across the US, the security industry has reported major recruitment issues. Recent surveys found that more than a third of security companies were unable to promote staffing to the level they had at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the perception is that crime rates are rising in many parts of the country. In other words, there is a greater need for security guards when it becomes much more difficult to hire security guards.
Hakimo’s solution could fill the gap. The company has developed software that links to video cameras that many organizations and some households already have on-site. Its AI agents can monitor feeds from all these cameras simultaneously, identifying intruders and other threat actors, especially anomalies.
Once such anomalies are detected, the technology will take action in accordance with agreed protocols. The first step is to encourage the intruder to play an audio warning and leave the scene. The software can also notify onsite security guards of issues and allow them to be investigated. Alternatively, you can encourage intervention from Hakimo’s internal team. This may result in you choosing to call emergency services.
“We can do everything that physical security guards provide, from deterrence to detection,” adds Joseph. “We’re not trying to replace security guards, but they can’t be anywhere at the same time. We want to work with them.”
Hakimo was founded five years ago by Joseph and Sagar Honongar. Both were developing AI applications at Stanford University that could have real-world impact. “I felt that the security sector is one of the industries where video AI could make a big difference.”
The first years of the company’s evolution were primarily devoted to product development, but Hakimo began taking off commercially over the past few years. The number of customers has tripled over the past year alone, and Hakimo software is currently used by over 100 companies. It is aimed at commercial customers in industries such as auto dealers, manufacturing, and real estate. This is all areas where intruders and thieves have valuable assets that they can target.
For many of these customers, the technology has had the impact the founders were aiming for. “There was a significant reduction in trespassing shortly after deploying Hakimo,” says Rodrigo Duran, general manager of Kia Santa Maria, a single car dealership that used the software. “I’m sleeping at night now.”
Hakimo’s social media videos show that the technology is working. But Joseph is proud of the versatility of the software. “We believe there are a variety of potential use cases,” he says. “Our AI agents have already saved lives, and we picked up a situation where someone had collapsed and allowed our team to call 911.”
Investors are also excited about the business possibilities. Today’s $10.5 million Series A round is led by Vertex Ventures and Zigg Capital, with participation from RXR Arden Digital Ventures and existing investors. VC and Gokul Rajaram. The total amount raised by the company is $20 million.
“Hakimo brings fundamental innovation to the large but outdated physical security industry,” said Piyush Kharbanda, general partner at Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India. “Current solutions lack the speed or accuracy to provide affordable real-time protection for offline businesses, which creates a disastrous need for innovation.”
At Zigg Capital, Managing Partner Ryan Orley adds:
In fact, pricing links to the number of cameras being monitored by Hakimo software. But Joseph says that a typical customer pays thousands of dollars a month for service. They also say they will pay ten times more to a security team that offers the same level of protection.
