AURA, a South African emergency tech business, raised €13.5 million (R270 million) in Series B funding on May 16, 2025, to expand globally, primarily in the US. This fresh capital brings AURA’s total funding to €21 million, underscoring strong investor confidence in its innovative emergency response technology.
Expanding emergency response with African Innovation
AURA, founded in 2017 by Warren Myers, Ryan Green, and Adam Pantanowitz, is South Africa’s largest private emergency response network, linking over 1.2 million consumers to 3,000 certified security and medical responders. The platform uses innovative dispatch technology to link distressed individuals to the nearest available help, reducing response times and improving safety outcomes.
Warren Myers, AURA’s CEO, emphasized the company’s readiness to go global: “Having built a profitable and trusted presence in the UK and Africa, we’re now ready to take personal safety global. Our mission is to make access to life-saving services seamless, borderless, and available through a single API – empowering individuals and the platforms that serve them.”
The platform integrates easily with consumer apps, WhatsApp, and IoT devices, enabling businesses to offer on-demand emergency support as a value-added service.
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Strong backing fuels US market entry
The Series B round was co-led by the Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF) and global venture capital firm Partech, marking Partech’s first investment in AURA.
Patricia Rinke, Investment Director at CAIF, praised the team’s vision and execution, stating, “We trust the team’s powerful vision and extraordinary execution capabilities as it scales its life-saving technology to the US market and across the world.”
AURA has already soft-launched its on-demand private security response model in the US to address the growing demand for private security amid stretched public emergency services. The company aims to streamline alarm verification, reduce false alarms, and allow law enforcement to focus on higher-priority incidents.
Matthieu Marchand, Principal at Partech, called AURA “one of the most innovative players globally in the emergency response and security industry” and said, “It’s only the beginning.”
With this funding, AURA plans to develop a global “clearing house” for emergency response – a universal dispatch system that connects users to nearby responders across borders through a single API, revolutionizing how emergency services operate worldwide.
This bold move by AURA highlights how African-born technology is reshaping global emergency response, offering faster, more accessible, and scalable safety solutions to millions across continents.