Surveillance Startup Verkada Hits Half-Billion Dollar Valuation

Verkada was founded with the mission to “modernize the world of physical security.

May 27, 2019 /MarketersMedia/ —

The San Mateo, California-based startup, Verkada, have pulled in additional series B funding, bringing the overall valuation of the three-year-old company to over half a billion dollars ($540 million) — with plenty of room for future expansion.

Verkada was founded with the mission to “modernize the world of physical security.” In an impressively short amount of time, they’ve managed to establish themselves as industry leaders, meeting this goal with their “cutting-edge camera technology and intelligent, web based software.”

“We’ve jumped 10 years ahead from where we were just a year agos,” boasts Joseph Martin, Police Chief of Parkersburg, WV after their recent migration to Verkada’s surveillance solution. How has such a new market entrant managed to take the market by storm?

Verkada’s IoT Surveillance Ecosystem

Verkada’s cameras are smart, simple to use, and offer unmatched cyber security. They’re built to be fully functional right out of the box, and they’re equipped with built-in authentication protocols. They also receive weekly updates for their evolving software architecture. Each camera utilizes Verkada’s intelligent AI and a wide range of sensor options, but it’s the combined benefits of the cloud that make them truly impressive.

As footage is being recorded, it is automatically encrypted and stored on both the camera’s SSD and on Verkada’s servers. This ensures that there is always a backup of surveillance footage, and the automatic encryption prevents a camera from giving up its secrets, even if the unit is stolen.

These cameras are much harder to hack thanks to their unique RSA pairings. A public key is stored in each camera, which allows for their automatic encryption, and a private key is stored on Verkada’s servers. A camera will only make outbound communications with Verkada once both keys are validated.

Authorized users can stream camera feeds to any authorized device, which eliminates the need for traditional security monitors and on-premises servers. This also makes footage easy to share with authorized guests, such as police officers when the need arises, instead of having to deal with the complex interfaces of older systems.

The Flaws of Legacy Systems

Verkada’s CEO, Flip Kaliszan, was troubled that so many organizations still rely on security systems right out of the late 80s and 90s. “The technology that’s out there is really outdated,” he states. “These solutions are led by companies who are used to building hardware.”

The solutions he refers to are security systems like traditional NVR (network video recorder) AND DVR (digital video recorder) systems. These systems rely on IP cameras to record footage and transmit the data through a network cable to a remote monitor. Footage is typically stored either on a disk drive or a memory card. These old systems often use open port workarounds with more modern technology, and this makes them particularly vulnerable to hackers.

For example, last year’s exploit “Peekaboo” managed to devastate NVR systems. This exploit allowed hackers to hijack cameras to spy and even alter video footage. Worse yet, they were able to steal credentials for other cameras and spread their influence throughout the entire network. Kaliszan knew that Verkada needed to offer security solutions that wouldn’t have such flaws to provide true peace of mind to his clients. He was inspired by the rapid innovation in consumer camera systems and sought to offer his clients similar advantages on a wider scale.

Future Innovations

Verkada’s intelligent AI can already count and recognize when people move in the camera’s vision, and it automatically ups the bitrate to ensure people are clearer than they would be on any other camera. This makes identification easy, and it has applications for monitoring secure areas and determining who is authorized to enter. Kaliszan hopes that in the future they will be able to also identify various suspicious behaviors so owners can be alerted. There is also potential for these cameras to identify dangers from fires, earthquakes or flooding in prone areas.

Contact Info:
Name: Verkada
Organization: Verkada
Website: https://www.verkada.com/

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