Not very long ago, physical security was considered a back-office function, low in priority but still necessary. Nowadays, the matter is addressed in the boardroom. And few businesses are reaping more rewards from this change than Verkada.
At the intersection of AI and physical security, the innovative company based in San Mateo, CA, has attracted a new round of financing led by CapitalG, thereby increasing its worth to $5.8 billion. This is a stunning increase from $1.3 billion just a few months ago when its Series E round was completed in February. Although the details of the deal are kept confidential, the market’s reaction is unequivocal: modern security is indispensable infrastructure.
Not Treating Safety as Optional Any More
Just after the recent attack on a UnitedHealth executive, among other violent incidents, many organisations had no choice but to admit a very uncomfortable fact: physical safety cannot be put on the back burner any longer. The necessity of protecting the people behind the assets is the focus of companies, schools and hospitals now.
Verkada was designed for just this time, with its inception in 2016 by Filip Kaliszan, James Ren and Benjamin Bercovitz. They were later joined by Hans Robertson, the former COO of Meraki. The aim of the company was to do away with the fragmented, outdated security measures and implement a system that was comprehensive.
By using the cloud, Verkada is replacing the separate systems for cameras, door access, alarms, and sensors with one. Security teams are thus given the power to keep an eye on the premises, inquire into the incidents, and deal with the dangers simply from a single dashboard anywhere in the world.
That strategy has yielded results. At present, more than 30,000 organizations in 171 countries have availed themselves of Verkada, using over 2 million devices. The platform is very busy as, on a daily basis, it conducts 2 million visitor check-ins, oversees 8 million door locks, and facilitates three intercom calls every second. For a lot of patrons, Verkada has been quietly woven in their daily nervous system.
Verkada was not without troubles during the upward trend. In 2021, hackers broke the security of live and recorded footage from customer cameras via admin credentials misuse. The breach was on the headlines all over the world and the trust in the whole security industry was shaken.
Inside the Verkada company, however, executives today refer to that time as a difficult but indispensable moment of coming to terms. The firm changed significant elements of its security framework, increased the measures for access control, and put a renewed focus on openness and trustworthiness.
Chief Revenue Officer Mike Schulman mentioned that the event compelled the firm to mature rapidly and thus be more responsible. Instead of weakening customer trust over the long term, apparently, their reaction has made it stronger.
Currently, Verkada seeks to expand beyond physical products into AI-based security management.
In September, the organisation unveiled over 60 new platform functionalities that include the ability for teams to locate occurrences in a period, automate interventions, and, at the same time, introduce a new function for alerting the urgent side of the matter.
The change characterizes security as a non-intrusive recoding system that can make decisions in real-time. The new capital will allow the company to move this change faster than it would otherwise and also enable workers to convert some of the wealth that they have been instrumental in creating into liquid assets.
CEO Filip Kaliszan stated that AI is at the root of a radical change of the way organizations take care of people and places, and also pointing out that Verkada’s extensive network of world-wide devices is now a very active agent in converting data from the physical world into practical strategies for action.
CapitalG partner Derek Zanutto concurred with the CEO, pointing out that Verkada is a one-of-a-kind company that has accomplished transforming security from being a cost center to becoming a source of strategic advantage.
Security as a Strategic Investment
Verkada is now at the hub of a very lucrative market with a rapidly expanding product vision, sustained investor trust, and, Global acceptance of its solutions, increasing by leaps and bounds. The company’s meteoric ascent is the quintessence of a much bigger transition: in the AI age, physical security is not just about watching, but understanding, predicting, and taking action in real time, which is the core of the safety becoming a strategic priority rather than just a compliance box.
