Cape Town-founded emergency services technology provider RapidDeploy has been acquired by US technology giant Motorola Solutions for an undisclosed sum.
Local venture capital group Havaíc, an investor in RapidDeploy said the transaction was proof that local companies could scale their operations, service international markets, garner foreign investment interest, with local backers being able to make a decent return upon exit.
On Sunday, Motorola Solutions — listed on the New York Stock Exchange — announced the acquisition of the complementary cloud-native 911 solution provider for public safety, now based in Austin, Texas.
“We’re technology investors and across our portfolio have had tremendous success over the years,” said Ian Lessem, managing partner at Havaíc.
Like other venture firms, Havaíc has a number of funds, with the first set up in 2016.
“Our first fund one was quite small, about $5m (R92m). Fund two was $20m and our third fund, which is still raising, is a $50m fund. All are focused on early stage technology businesses that solve some sort of real world problem and scale into international markets,” Lessem said.
RapidDeploy specialises in providing data and technology platforms for emergency services. It now services the US’s 911 programme, giving its telecommunicators access to real-time data, including a caller’s GPS location, indoor floor plans, and communications such as text, chat messaging and live video streams, which can be shared directly with first responders in the field.
RapidDeploy already integrates with Motorola Solutions’ Rave suite to aggregate public safety data, intelligence sharing and notification capabilities “to enhance the workflow of telecommunicators and first responders during critical emergencies”.
Havaíc first backed the company in October 2022, with follow on investment in 2023 and 2024.
“We have 22 companies to date in our portfolio. We’ve exited five and this will be our sixth. We actually have two more [exits] that are in the process, so in the next couple of months it will go from five to eight, which from an SA point of view, in our space, is quite significant,” Lessem said.
In finance, an exit refers to when an investment sells off or cashes in on an investment. Havaíc’s exits include Instant Property, BigTeam, Kuda, Vula and HearX.
RapidDeploy’s list of investors has included Edison Partners, GreatPoint Ventures, Morpheus Ventures, GM Ventures, Ericsson Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, Clearvision Ventures, Tau Ventures and Nedbank’s corporate and investment banking unit.
While the value of the RapidDeploy acquisition is undisclosed, Lessem said it was “one of the largest tech exits in SA history and as an investor we have achieved returns well in excess of our 30% targeted IRR [internal rate of return]”.
“This is an SA-born business. The developers sit in Cape Town but it services the US market. It’s quite a big business. You’re looking at around $20m ARR [annual rate of return]. So it’s not a tiny start-up.”
RapidDeploy has raised $92m (about R1.7bn) since its founding, suggesting a much higher enterprise value.
“We are honoured to join Motorola Solutions, a company that shares our commitment to public safety and our mission of saving lives by reducing response times,” said Steve Raucher, co-founder and CEO of RapidDeploy.
“Together, we will continue to accelerate innovation in 911 technology, helping to make NG911 smarter, more unified and seamlessly integrated to empower first responders and help save more lives.”
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