Emergency response teams continue to be essential in managing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and a company focused on improving their capabilities has recently announced a new funding round to facilitate further expansion.

Carbyne – an Israeli-based company that has developed a cloud platform designed to equip emergency services with more comprehensive caller information and enable faster response times through integrated telemedicine solutions – has secured $25 million in funding.

This investment will be used to advance the company’s technology and broaden the scope of its services to a growing number of markets and organizations, building on the substantial progress already achieved.

“Carbyne’s development began well before the recent pandemic; we had already been implementing cloud-based services, video technology, and precise location data for 911 systems for a considerable period, serving approximately 250 million individuals prior to 2020,” explained CEO Amir Elichai. “However, the emergence of COVID-19 rapidly transformed cloud solutions for emergency services from a beneficial addition to an absolute necessity.”

The company maintains partnerships with public health organizations, as well as key players such as CentralSquare and Global Medical Response (GMR), and anticipates covering roughly 90% of the U.S. market.

This Series B1 funding round is spearheaded by Hanaco Ventures and ELSTED Capital Partners, with participation from previous investors including former CIA Director General David Petraeus, Founders Fund, and FinTLV.

The designation of this round as a B1 suggests further funding opportunities are likely in the near future. In any event, the $25 million exceeds the company’s initial fundraising target.

“Our original plan for 2020 was to raise $15 million. When the pandemic began, we were committed to avoiding staff reductions, but the future was uncertain, so we implemented company-wide salary reductions,” stated Elichai. “However, starting in the second quarter, revenues began to double, and we experienced 160% growth in both the third and fourth quarters, making this funding round readily achievable.”

This funding follows a period of significant growth for the company, particularly over the past year.

Currently, Carbyne’s services support approximately 400 million people, with a new implementation being launched every ten days since March of last year.

Elichai – who co-founded the company alongside Alex Dizengoff (CTO), Yony Yatsun (engineering lead), and Lital Lesham (a shareholder) – noted that over the last nine months, Carbyne has transmitted approximately 155 million location data points to emergency medical service teams. The company’s newer remote assistance services have also accumulated 1.3 million minutes of video usage during this timeframe.

Based on available information, this funding round values Carbyne at “over $100 million.” While Elichai refrained from disclosing a precise figure, the company was previously valued at “around” $100 million during its 2018 funding round, which marked Founders Fund’s initial investment in an Israeli startup.

The company’s growth trajectory over the past year, coupled with the continuing demands on its services, indicates that the current valuation is substantial. The global landscape, and the company itself, have undergone considerable changes since the last funding round.

The conditions of 2018 now appear comparatively stable when contrasted with the current crises. The coronavirus pandemic, in particular, has a direct impact on Carbyne’s operations.

COVID-19 has proven to be a challenging illness, frequently causing severe symptoms – such as breathing difficulties and organ failure – during what initially appears to be recovery. (While this is not universally experienced, it occurs frequently enough to warrant attention.)

This has placed immense pressure on emergency response systems, from initial call handling to first patient contact and hospital care for critical cases. Many services are operating beyond their capacity, with numerous cities facing a critical situation.

Carbyne’s technology provides a solution by not only enhancing the ability of emergency personnel to perform their duties with more data, but also by enabling those services to relay information back to the individuals who initiated the calls.

The startup has made notable changes to its service delivery model in recent years.

During coverage of the company’s 2018 funding round, it offered some services directly to EMS organizations, but primarily relied on users installing an app, or accessing the technology through another application.

Elichai now states that the company has integrated location services from providers like Google, eliminating the need for users to download an app to connect to the platform.

Furthermore, the startup has taken a leading role in collaborating with municipalities to improve operational efficiency and prevent service overload.

A recent project in New Orleans, according to Elichai, was instrumental in helping the city manage the COVID-19 outbreak.

Looking ahead, there is a compelling case for modernizing legacy services within 911-style emergency response systems in the U.S. and other countries.

The recently approved $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill in Congress allocates $12 billion for the deployment of next-generation 911 technologies.

Carbyne projects that it will be serving approximately 1.5 billion people by 2023, and developments like the U.S. infrastructure bill support the feasibility of this goal, regardless of the ongoing impact of COVID-19.

“The capacity to establish seamless emergency communications between citizens, emergency call centers, first responders, and state and local government agencies will be critically important as it becomes integrated into emergency response systems, ultimately saving lives and improving outcomes,” stated General Petraeus. “Carbyne’s offerings will significantly improve communications during critical moments.”