Venture Capital

Kogniz Pinpoints $10 Million Investment

BERKELEY — Kogniz, developer of a next-generation AI-based computer vision platform, has unveiled a ready-to-deploy gun detection module as part of the latest version of its technology that predicts, detects, and resolves key safety and operational problems. The company is also announcing a $10 million investment led by Ulu Ventures and with participation by super{set} Venture Studio and its CEO and Co-Founder Tom Chavez, The Indy Fund, K20 FundH. Barton Asset Management, and others. The investment will help bring the company’s technology product suite for gun detection, safety, and anomaly detection to commercial, industrial, school, and governmental organizations.

Prevent and Quickly Respond to Active Shooter Events with Ready-to-Deploy Gun Detection

Today active shootings present a serious challenge requiring multiple layers of safety and security measures. In fact, FBI data reveals that active shooter incidents have increased 33% between 2019-2020 and 52.5% between 2020 and 2021. The United States has suffered at least four mass shootings every week so far in 2022. Organizations across the board—retail, industrial, schools, religious, medical, governmental, among others—can benefit from AI-based solutions to help prepare and prevent mass shootings in their environments.

Kogniz built Kogniz Gun Detection to help organizations to prepare for, proactively detect, and respond to an active shooter event. Kogniz Gun Detection was designed for quick deployment with the flexibility to adapt to each organization’s specific needs.

Kogniz Gun Detection uses computer vision and AI to identify firearms in real time using a client’s existing camera infrastructure, offering:

  • No False Alarms using multi-pass AI and backed by a trained team of human verifiers
  • Real-Time Alerts over phone, SMS, Slack, and email
  • Prebuilt Automated Workflows to automate actions defined in the emergency response plan
  • Dynamic Reports to easily access real-time, critical information
  • Two-Way Communications to provide information to those in need of help and stakeholders like police and other first responders
  • Emergency Response Plans to document and prepare for actions to be taken during the emergency response
  • Visual Simulations to simulate and prepare for active shooter scenarios and validate emergency response plans

“Kogniz Gun Detection uses client’s own cameras already onsite to detect and immediately respond in the horrible event of an active shooter or mass shooting situation,” shared Daniel Putterman, CEO of Kogniz. “By enabling a ready-to-deploy gun detection solution, we’re making it dramatically easier for companies, governmental agencies, schools, and hospitals to prepare for and then help reduce the harm done by an active shooter event.”

Kogniz Gun Detection seamlessly integrates with the Kogniz platform to address other safety and security situations. These pre-built detectors include detecting unusual behaviors like people running in halls, people entering through exits or jumping fences, and other situations that can be early indicators of incidents before they escalate.