SA emergency response startup RapidDeploy bags Nedbank investment deal

RapidDeploy, a South African emergency response platform, has raised equity capital from Nedbank CIB, the Nedbank Group’s corporate and investment banking division, one of the country’s four main banking companies.

RapidDeploy is an open and integrated response technology founded by Steven Raucher and Brett Meyerowitz that transforms any size first responder communications center into a data-centric organization.

By seamlessly integrating third-party data and ensuring that it is available when, when, and how telecommunicators and first responders need it, the platform achieves new levels of situational awareness and decreases response times.

RapidDeploy has worked with nine states and countless local emergency communications centers after relocating its headquarters and primary emphasis to Austin, Texas, in the United States. However, a portion of its technical and product teams remain in South Africa, and it has now attracted South African investors in the form of Nedbank CIB. The company is currently seeking further funding from international firms to help it expand its technology to new markets.

“We are delighted that Nedbank has chosen to invest in RapidDeploy,” Raucher remarked. “As our first institutional investor in South Africa, Nedbank secures our continuous investment in our South African staff and allows us to expand and flourish.”

The bank’s decision to invest in RapidDeploy was based on the strong alignment of the company’s innovation-led business model with Nedbank’s policy of investing in world-leading businesses and technologies that can deliver sustainable positive impact, according to Johann Van Zyl, head of principal and alternative investment at Nedbank CIB.

“At Nedbank, we recognize that technology can do far more than enable customer engagement or assist in the development of a business, and the fact that RapidDeploy technology is literally saving lives means that this venture capital technology investment supports our Nedbank purpose of using our financial expertise to do good,” he said.

The investment in RapidDeploy, according to Van Zyl, was in line with Nedbank’s venture capital goal of investing in and partnering with revolutionary, category-defining technology firms.

“As an on-balance-sheet investor, our venture capital approach is extremely strategic, and we prefer to engage closely with our investee firms,” he said. “We look forward to supporting RapidDeploy’s future growth and expansion as opportunities occur,” he said.