Octopus, a Tel Aviv startup that makes cloud-based physical security systems for large facilities, has raised $2.5 million from Singulariteam.
The company will use the funds to expand in the U.S. and Asia. In China, its growth plans will be helped along by the fact that two of China’s biggest Internet companies, Tencent and Renren, are Singulariteam backers. Octopus’ products are already used in Israel by the government, 28 Coca-Cola factories, VISA, and three national banks.
Octopus’ security systems, intended for facilities like airports, factories, hospitals, and commercial buildings, can be monitored from a web or mobile app. Its cloud-based system analyzes data in real-time from sources including video surveillance feeds, traffic reports, social media keywords, and fire and burglar alarms so emergencies can be prevented or dealt with quickly by first responders.
Co-founder and chief executive officer Tal Bar Or spent 13 years serving in the Israel Security Agency before working as a consultant, helping clients design security systems. At Octopus, he works with co-founder Baruch Tagori, a cybersecurity expert, to make sure Octopus’ systems are safe from hacking as well as physical break-ins.
Octopus’ competitors include tech firms like Cisco, Nice Systems, and Siemens, which also make tech-based physical security systems. Bar Or says that his company’s advantage is an already fully-deployed and tested cloud-based system, as well as its focus on cybersecurity. Octopus also makes its products easy for clients to integrate into their existing security systems with SDKs. For example, it already works with China’s Hikvision, one of the largest suppliers of video surveillance equipment and software in the world.
“Three years ago, what we are doing now was science fiction to customers. Now we are giving users a very easy-to-deploy system,” says Bal Or. “Its cost is lower for clients because we are doing it on the cloud, so they are saving on IT personnel, hardware, and have more ability and all the know how of Israeli security in the brain of Octopus.”