RapidDeploy, a South African emergency response business received funding from Nedbank

RapidDeploy, a South African emergency response platform, has secured equity capital from Nedbank CIB, the Nedbank Group’s corporate and investment banking branch, 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 centre 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 reaches unprecedented levels of situational awareness and decreases reaction times.

RapidDeploy has worked with nine states and countless local emergency communications centers after relocating its headquarters and major 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 corporations to help it expand its technology to other markets.

“We are honoured that Nedbank has chosen to invest in RapidDeploy,” said Raucher. “As our first South African institutional investor, Nedbank ensures our continued investment in our teams in South Africa and enables us to expand and grow.”

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 recognise that there’s far more to technology than just enabling customer engagement or helping to build a business, and the fact that RapidDeploy technology is literally saving lives, means this venture capital technology investment gives good effect to our Nedbank purpose of applying 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 highly strategic, and we prefer to work closely with our investee companies, so we are looking forward to supporting RapidDeploy’s future growth and expansion as the opportunities present, particularly given that their success and growth will ultimately translate into even more lives saved,” he said.