Intruder Alert: Why Hakimo Thinks AI Is The Future Of Security
Hakimo founders Sam Joseph and Sagar Honnungar
Hakimo
The video shows two young men breaking into a school basketball court, ignoring warnings that they are trespassing played out over loudspeakers. Within minutes, two security guards arrive to escort them off the premises. It's a recording of real-life scene that you can watch for yourself on the social media feed of San Francisco-based start-up Hakimo, which publishes regular 'Catch of the Week' videos to highlight its artificial intelligence-powered remote security technology.
'We offer all the benefits of an onsite security guard at a fraction of the cost,' says Sam Joseph, co-founder and CEO of Hakimo, which is today announcing it has raised $10.5 million of new funding. 'Our intelligent AI agent understands and responds to threats like never before.'
It could be just the right service at the right time. Across the US, the security industry is reporting huge problems with recruitment. One recent survey found that more than a third of security firms still had not managed to boost staffing to the levels they had at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, in many areas of the country, the perception is that crime rates are rising. In other words, there is more need for security guards at a time when hiring them has got much harder.
Hakimo's solution could bridge the gap. The company has developed software that links to the video cameras that many organisations – and some households – have already installed around their premises. Its AI agent can monitor the feed from all those cameras simultaneously and, critically, identify anomalies – in particular, intruders and other threat actors.
When such an anomaly is detected, the technology takes action according to agreed protocols. The first step might be to play an audio warning to the trespasser, urging them to leave the scene. The software can also notify onsite security guards of the problem, so that they can investigate. Or it can prompt an intervention from Hakimo's in-house team, which might choose to call the emergency services.
'We can do everything that a physical security guard offers, from deterrence to detection,' adds Joseph. 'We're not trying to replace guards, but they can't be everywhere at the same time; we want to work with them.'
Hakimo was founded five years ago by Joseph and Sagar Honnungar, both of whom had been working at Stanford University to develop AI applications that could deliver real-world impact. 'We felt the security sector was one industry where AI in video could make a huge difference.'
The first few years of the company's evolution were largely dedicated to developing the product, but Hakimo has begun to take off commercially over the past couple of years. Customer numbers have tripled over the past year alone, with Hakimo's software now in use at more than 100 companies. It targets commercial customers in industries such as car dealerships, manufacturing and real estate – all areas where businesses have valuable assets that intruders and thieves could target.
For many of those customers, the technology is having the impact that the founders were aiming for. 'We got a drastic reduction in trespassing right after deploying Hakimo,' says Rodrigo Duran, general manager at Kia Santa Maria, one car dealership using the software. 'I now sleep better at night.'
Hakimo's social media videos show the technology in action. But Joseph is proud of the versatility of the software. 'We see the potential for a range of different use cases,' he says. 'Our AI agent has already saved a life, picking up a situation where someone had collapsed so that our team could call 911.'
Investors are also excited by the potential of the business. Today's $10.5 million Series A round is led by Vertex Ventures and Zigg Capital with participation from RXR Arden Digital Ventures and existing investors Defy.vc and Gokul Rajaram. It takes the total amount of money raised by the company to $20.5 million.
'Hakimo is bringing ground-up technological innovation to the large but antiquated physical security industry,' says Piyush Kharbanda, general partner of Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India. 'There is a dire need for innovation, as current solutions lack the speed or accuracy to offer affordable real-time protection for offline businesses.'
At Zigg Capital, managing partner Ryan Orley adds: 'Hakimo's solution is more robust and offers better value than any other technology we have encountered.'
In practice, pricing is linked to the number of cameras monitored by Hakimo's software. But Joseph says the typical customer is paying a few thousand dollars a month for the service – and that they would pay 10 times as much for a team of security guards offering the same level of protection.
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U.S. bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million (19.3 million euros) collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data. The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter's Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the U.S. gave an average $27 million (23.7 million euros) to Peter's Pence, more than half the global total. American generosity hasn't prevented overall Peter's Pence contributions from cratering. After hitting a high of $101 million (88.6 million euros) in 2006, contributions hovered around $75 million (66.8 million euros) during the 2010's then tanked to $47 million (41.2 million euros) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches were closed. 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an hour ago
How the Vatican manages money and where Pope Leo XIV might find more
VATICAN CITY -- The world's smallest country has a big budget problem. The Vatican doesn't tax its residents or issue bonds. It primarily finances the Catholic Church's central government through donations that have been plunging, ticket sales for the Vatican Museums, as well as income from investments and an underperforming real estate portfolio. The last year the Holy See published a consolidated budget, in 2022, it projected 770 million euros ($878 million), with the bulk paying for embassies around the world and Vatican media operations. In recent years, it hasn't been able to cover costs. That leaves Pope Leo XIV facing challenges to drum up the funds needed to pull his city-state out of the red. Anyone can donate money to the Vatican, but the regular sources come in two main forms. Canon law requires bishops around the world to pay an annual fee, with amounts varying and at bishops' discretion 'according to the resources of their dioceses.' U.S. bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million (19.3 million euros) collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data. The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter's Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the U.S. gave an average $27 million (23.7 million euros) to Peter's Pence, more than half the global total. American generosity hasn't prevented overall Peter's Pence contributions from cratering. After hitting a high of $101 million (88.6 million euros) in 2006, contributions hovered around $75 million (66.8 million euros) during the 2010's then tanked to $47 million (41.2 million euros) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches were closed. Donations remained low in the following years, amid revelations of the Vatican's bungled investment in a London property, a former Harrod's warehouse that it hoped to develop into luxury apartments. The scandal and ensuing trial confirmed that the vast majority of Peter's Pence contributions had funded the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe. Peter's Pence donations rose slightly in 2023 and Vatican officials expect more growth going forward, in part because there has traditionally been a bump immediately after papal elections. The Vatican bank and the city state's governorate, which controls the museums, also make annual contributions to the pope. As recently as a decade ago, the bank gave the pope around 55 million euros ($62.7 million) a year to help with the budget. But the amounts have dwindled; the bank gave nothing specifically to the pope in 2023, despite registering a net profit of 30 million euros ($34.2 million), according to its financial statements. The governorate's giving has likewise dropped off. Some Vatican officials ask how the Holy See can credibly ask donors to be more generous when its own institutions are holding back. Leo will need to attract donations from outside the U.S., no small task given the different culture of philanthropy, said the Rev. Robert Gahl, director of the Church Management Program at Catholic University of America's business school. He noted that in Europe there is much less of a tradition (and tax advantage) of individual philanthropy, with corporations and government entities doing most of the donating or allocating designated tax dollars. Even more important is leaving behind the 'mendicant mentality' of fundraising to address a particular problem, and instead encouraging Catholics to invest in the church as a project, he said. Speaking right after Leo's installation ceremony in St. Peter's Square, which drew around 200,000 people, Gahl asked: 'Don't you think there were a lot of people there that would have loved to contribute to that and to the pontificate?' In the U.S., donation baskets are passed around at every Sunday Mass. Not so at the Vatican. The Vatican has 4,249 properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value, according to the annual report from the APSA patrimony office, which manages them. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 10% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. In 2023, these properties only generated 35 million euros ($39.9 million) in profit. Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue. But Ward Fitzgerald, the president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, which finances papal charities, said the Vatican should also be willing to sell properties, especially those too expensive to maintain. Many bishops are wrestling with similar downsizing questions as the number of church-going Catholics in parts of the U.S. and Europe shrinks and once-full churches stand empty. Toward that end, the Vatican recently sold the property housing its embassy in Tokyo's high-end Sanbancho neighborhood, near the Imperial Palace, to a developer building a 13-story apartment complex, according to the Kensetsu News trade journal. Yet there has long been institutional reluctance to part with even money-losing properties. Witness the Vatican announcement in 2021 that the cash-strapped Fatebenefratelli Catholic hospital in Rome, run by a religious order, would not be sold. Pope Francis simultaneously created a Vatican fundraising foundation to keep it and other Catholic hospitals afloat. 'They have to come to grips with the fact that they own so much real estate that is not serving the mission of the church,' said Fitzgerald, who built a career in real estate private equity. ___
