Flock Safety and one of its longtime VCs, Bedrock Capital, announced Thursday that the startup has raised $275 million new $7.5 billion in value.
Flock creates computer-vision-enabled video surveillance technology used by law enforcement agencies, businesses, real estate management companies, and more. Best known for its automatic license plate recognition technology, Flock sold gunshot detection technology to schools and recently acquired public safety drone company Aerodome.
Flock was founded in 2017 and passed the Y Combinator in the same year. In the years that followed, growth exploded. Flock spokesman Holly Beilin told TechCrunch that Flock exceeded $300 million in annual revenue of 70% year-on-year.
According to Pitchbook data, the Atlanta-based startup now raises more than $950 million in total funding, with its last valuation of $4.8 billion a year ago. Investors Andreessen Horowitz, Greenoaks, Meritech Capital, Matrix Partners and YC participated in the round.
Flock wasn't surprised considering it would create surveillance technology. For example, the ACLU cited concerns about the flocks about the types of mass surveillance that it allows, and urged the company a year ago to allow independent reviews of its products. Privacy advocates in Norfolk, Virginia are now urging to stop the herd from unfolding there.
Flock is also facing an illegal dismissal lawsuit from the mayor sitting in a small California town, as reported recently by TechCrunch.
That said, the herd has been VC darlings for years.
For example, Geoff Lewis, founder of Bedrock, flew to Atlanta in 2018 to tell Garrett Langley, co-founder of Flock, was one of the first checks from Beg To Conge Tone The Lewis' new company. However, Langley has just closed Flock's Series A.
The deal was a “completely insane” $60 million valuation, as explained by Bedrock. It's a rating of three times the A-round just a few months ago. Langley took the money – since then, he's surpassed $164 million in investments from the bedrock.
Incidentally, Lewis, who was welcomed by the Founders Fund, currently has other celebrities in Bedrock's portfolio, including Openai, Rippling, and Mach Industries.
Meanwhile, David Ulevitch, the lead of the American Dynamism Fund for the A16Z, led the other rounds for the pack. “Apart from protecting property, the safety of the herd is literally helping to save lives,” Ulevitch and A16Z Growth VC David George gave their opinion in 2021.
YC's Garry Tan took him to LinkedIn a few months ago to praise the swarm of success he achieved in the fight against crime.
But that's Flock's revenue growth, and in addition to its public safety products, investors “continue to double and triple the flock,” Beilin said.