LiveSafe, announced it has secured $11 million in a Series B-1 extension. Approximately half of the investments in this extension were made by existing investors and half came from new investors. Previous investors participating in this round include Hearst, Enterprise Investment Partners, L.P. (the personal investment vehicle for FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith), and IAC (NASDAQ :IAC ), with participation from new investors Dave Duffield (founder and former CEO of PeopleSoft and Workday), Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, GXPI (investment arm of Evergy, Inc.), and the Kilberg family. The new funding will be leveraged to accelerate strategic partnerships, expand sales and marketing and to further build out its product offerings.
U.S. companies spend more than $300 billion annually on legal fees, investigations and lost wages stemming from incidents of workplace violence, theft, injury and misconduct. In virtually every workplace incident situation there are individuals who are aware of advanced threat indicators that could be helpful in preventing them, if only they could share that information with security officials ahead of time.
Risk prevention yields a far greater return on investment than responding to an incident after the fact. LiveSafe is an easy-to-use platform that powers enterprises – including retailers, utilities, healthcare organizations, transportation and logistics firms, colleges and universities, sports teams and arenas, events, and some of the nation's largest corporations and federal agencies -- to mitigate risks and create a "return on prevention" by surfacing actionable people-sourced safety and security intelligence on some of the most critical types of risks facing organizations today. These include workplace violence, insider threats, workplace injuries, malfeasance, sexual harassment, cyber threats and others.
Major leaders and public safety and security experts are advisors to LiveSafe, including former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Governor Tom Ridge, former Director of the US Secret Service Mark J. Sullivan, former NYC Police Commissioners Bill Bratton and Ray Kelly, former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, and more than 300 customers across the United States. Market response to the value of LiveSafe has resulted in more than a 6X growth in the number of clients and a 5X growth in total contract value over the past three years.
"I've always believed that people are the heart of any organization and are its biggest assets," said Dave Duffield, founder and former CEO of PeopleSoft and Workday. "My investment in LiveSafe further reinforces this view. Employees feel most empowered to succeed when employers invest in their talent and show concern for their wellness, safety, and security. With LiveSafe, employees create an informed community in which they protect one another while reducing risks for the company, thereby creating a safer environment for everyone."
"Employee safety comes first. We want people in our company and every company to feel empowered to protect themselves and their company from risks," said Brock Smith of GXP Investments, the investment arm of Evergy, Inc., one of the nation's leading energy providers. "The impact of prevention is invaluable, and LiveSafe helps keep safety and risk prevention top-of-mind."
"HearstLab is committed to nurturing world-changing products, as well as the strong leaders who develop them," said Eve Burton, co-founder of HearstLab and SVP and Chief Legal Officer of Hearst. "We are proud to be early and longtime supporters of LiveSafe and investors in this latest round, and we believe their mission to build safer spaces to work and learn is uniquely important. Safety, security, and preventing risk are cornerstones of the modern corporate environment and LiveSafe's model of people-sourced risk intelligence can benefit organizations of all sizes. LiveSafe's rapid expansion speaks for itself, and we are excited to see them continue to lead and grow the risk prevention movement across the United States."
"Ensuring the safety and security of our employees, tenants, and guests across our portfolio is Brookfield's top priority, and having sophisticated and flexible security program is critical to that," said Kimberly Shea, Director, Security & Life Safety, Brookfield Properties. "LiveSafe is a key part of that program, connecting our security professionals directly with the people in our buildings. By significantly expanding the number of individuals capable of immediately notifying security of potential concerns, LiveSafe helps us respond to issues and, better yet, prevent incidents before they occur."
"The annual CES is the biggest technology event of the year, bringing over 180,000 people to Las Vegas," said Gary Shapiro President and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, the organization that produces CES. "We use several strategies to focus on attendee safety and our relationship with LiveSafe provides an important additional layer to our security operation. The LiveSafe technology seamlessly connects our security professionals directly with the event's hosts, guests, and vendors, enabling open and anonymous communication about potential incidents and concerns. This helps our safety and security experts to act preemptively, discovering incidents before they can develop into crises."
"Twenty-first century corporate leadership must treat safety, security, and incident prevention as a business priority. This reality represents a major shift in thinking for many C-suites. The majority of costly, small- and large-scale risks that threaten organizations are known by some employees. It is critical that organizational leaders tap into their greatest sources of incident prevention intelligence -- their people. Our mission is to enable companies to surface these risks via crowd-sourced intelligence to prevent any harm from occurring," said Carolyn Parent, LiveSafe CEO. "The diverse and influential group of people and companies that have invested in LiveSafe, including corporate leaders and education and security experts, are steadfast in their support of LiveSafe and the need to power even greater prevention within their organizations."
About LiveSafe
LiveSafe's risk intelligence technology platform engages organization-wide vigilance that surfaces early warning insights and prevents serious safety and security incidents to mitigate operational risks, reduce financial losses, and make places safer for people to work, learn, and live. LiveSafe is used by more than 300 forward-thinking enterprises, universities and organizations including Hearst, IAC, Cox Communications, Brookfield Properties, the Consumer Technology Association, the San Francisco 49ers and many others. Follow LiveSafe on Twitter @LiveSafe, and learn more at LiveSafeMobile.com.
