Athena Security Completes $5.5M Funding Round; Startup Teaches Cameras To Spot, Report Crime

Texas-based Athena Security is a startup technology company that uses artificial intelligence to teach existing security cameras to identify crimes with 99% accuracy. On Thursday, the company announced the completion of $5.5 million in seed funding.

What Happened

Athena's capital raise was led by Pathfinder, the angel arm of Founders Fund in addition to 40 individual angel investors, the company said in a press release.

The company said its A.I. technology is the world's first truly accurate system to automatically detect and alert law enforcement as soon as a criminal act or visible weapon is detected. 

Athena's technology masks and blurs out all face in the system before its A.I. system starts to analyze the video for threats. As such, no Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is tracked or stored at Athena or customers.

Why It's Important

Athena's goal is to "save lives and speed help" to the scene of a crime, co-founder and CEO Lisa Falzone said in the press release. It's an "overwhelming feeling" to be able to make a difference in helping protect lives at religious institutions, schools and businesses.

The capital raise will be used to speed the mass adoption of its security technology, the company said.

"Athena Security, will not only save lives and mitigate crime, but will do so in a socially responsible way that responds appropriately to today's globally violent times," said Adrian Fenty, General Partner at M Ventures and former Mayor of Washington, DC.

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