Guardly

Guardly
Private
Industry Corporate Security
Founded 2010[1]
Founder Josh Sookman[2]
Headquarters Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Josh Sookman, CEO[3]
Products Enterprise Mobile Safety Platform
Mobile Safety Apps
Incident Management System
Indoor Positioning System
Mobile Mass Notification System
Website www.guardly.com

Guardly is a Canadian-based security company with headquarters in Toronto.[2] The company designs and provides mobile safety and security solutions for enterprise organizations, campuses, and municipalities.[4] It is best known for its mobile safety application that allows users to connect to security, public authorities and a list of emergency contacts when the safety app is activated.[5][6] Guardly is also attributed as the first company to offer an indoor positioning system to locate users who are within a building during an emergency,[7] and the first to offer a mass notification system that integrates with indoor positioning data to locate people in need of help.[8] The company's technology was featured on the Discovery Channel’s Future Tech TV series.[9]

History

Guardly was founded in 2010 by Josh Sookman, the company's current CEO.[1] Prior to Guardly, he worked for both BlackBerry Partners Fund and RBC Venture Partners.[1] The company received an undisclosed amount in its first round of Seed Funding in September 2011, led by Golden Venture Partners and Extreme Venture Partners, with a matching contribution from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario).[10] Guardly raised another $1.45 million in January 2014 during a second Seed Funding Round, led by Freestyle Capital with participation from Golden Venture Partners and the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund.[2]

Guardly was originally founded as a personal security application for consumers.[2] In the event of an emergency, the app would notify a set of contacts chosen by the user as well as alert authorities. By September 2012 Guardly began to partner with educational organizations to implement its software into campus security systems on campus.[2] During the same quarter, Guardly expanded its offerings by partnering with other companies that also sold products into the educational market including Code Blue Corp, a manufacturer of Blue Light Phones used on college campuses as a way to notify campus police from various locations on campus.[11] The partnership expanded upon Code Blue’s technological capabilities by including Guardly mobile safety applications as a new endpoint from which to report emergencies to campus police.[11] The app allowed campus security to identify the user and track their movements once the app was activated.[11] Guardly also partnered with Desire2Learn in 2012, presenting its app as an add on to Desire2Learn's Campus Life mobile app.[12]

In 2013, the Crime Prevention Association of Toronto partnered with Guardly to implement the company's technologies into neighborhood watch programs.[13] Guardly's mobile mass notification system was integrated into an app called notifEYE, later launched by the Crime Prevention Association of Toronto.[13] In January 2014 the company began to branch out into enterprise security solutions.[10] The infrastructure includes a variety of smartphones coupled with its mobile safety applications, its indoor positioning system, and its incident management application.[13]

Products and services

Guardly provides an enterprise mobile safety platform for communication and emergency notification. It incorporates cloud, mobile, indoor positioning, and real time tracking. The Guardly Safety app allows users to communicate with dispatch by phone and secure instant messaging, while tracking real-time location.[14] The app has the ability to allow users to connect to a select group of their contacts as well as authorities in the event of an emergency. The contacts are connected through conference call and instant messaging and also allows for location tracking when activated by the user.[14] Guardly added an indoor positioning system to its app in 2013.[15][16]

Guardly's incident management system provides web based incident management and assistance to dispatch personnel for monitoring and managing emergency situations.[17] During an incident, dispatchers can speak with the caller by phone or text and view photos sent by end users of the system. The system is configurable to monitor for alerts within multiple geographical regions using the company’s geofencing technology and routing information to multiple security operation centers or sites.[18]

Guardly’s Indoor Positioning System is said to be able to show a rough geographical location and also transmit a specific floor and a specific room where someone in an emergency is located.[7] The company further expanded its offerings with a mobile mass notification system.[8] The system allows mass notification to up to 500,000 people within a geotargeted area and can be used in conjunction with the indoor positioning system.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Egusa, Conrad (1 March 2011). "Guardly alerts your "safetry network" in emergencies". Venturebeat. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Etherington, Darrell (29 January 2014). "Guardly Raises $1.45M To Help Ramp Up Its Focus On Enterprise Facility And Worker Safety". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  3. ↑ "Guardly wants to disrupt the corporate security market through its real-time mobile app-based platform". Startup Beat. 12 February 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  4. ↑ Liu, Ted (30 January 2014). "Guardly raises $1.4M seed funding". Canadian Private Equity. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
  5. ↑ Jacob, Vesna P. (2014). Fit to Fight: The Complete Manual on Self-defense for Women. Random House India. ISBN 9788184005424.
  6. ↑ Payton, Theresa M. (2014). Privacy in the Age of Big Data: Recognizing Threats, Defending Your Rights, and Protecting Your Family. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442225466.
  7. 1 2 Ehterington, Darrell (26 February 2013). "Guardly First In Mobile Safety To Offer Indoor Positioning System To Aid In Emergency Response". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 Etherington, Darrell (27 June 2013). "Guardly Launches Mobile Mass Notifications With Indoor Positioning To Help With Emergency Response". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  9. ↑ "Future Tech - Guardly". The Discovery Channel. 12 April 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  10. 1 2 Berkow, Jameson (13 September 2011). "Toronto startups get $1M in federal funding". Financial Post. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 Dobby, Christine (5 September 2012). "Toronto startup Guardly inks partnership deal to bolster growth plans". Financial Post. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  12. ↑ Etherington, Darrell (26 November 2012). "Guardly Partners With Desire2Learn To Bring Campus Safety Features To The Blackboard Competitor". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  13. 1 2 3 Jackson, Brian (11 November 2013). "Guardly provides Toronto with Neighborhood Watch app". IT Business Canada. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  14. 1 2 Lee, Becky (24 August 2011). "The Role of Mobile Apps in the Fight Against Intimate Partner Violence". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  15. ↑ Braga, Matthew (1 March 2013). "Startup Roundup: Guardly tracks trouble indoors, Fanfare acquired, apply for C100 mentorship event now". Financial Post. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  16. ↑ Jackson, Brian (27 February 2013). "Guardly releases locating technology accurate to the room number". IT Business. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
  17. ↑ Schaffhauser, Dian (19 September 2012). "OCAD University Deploys Guardly Campust Safety App". Campus Technology. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
  18. ↑ Schaffhauser, Dian (26 February 2013). "Guardly Adds Indoor Positioning System to Mobile Emergency Response Line". The Journal. Retrieved 2 May 2014.

External links

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