Y Combinator’s police surveillance darling Flock Safety raises $275M at $7.5B valuation

Flock Safety and one of its long-time VCs, Bedrock Capital, announced Thursday that the startup raised a fresh $275 million at a $7.5 billion valuation. Flock makes computer vision-enabled video surveillance technology used by law enforcement as well as businesses, property management companies, and so on. It’s best known for its automatic license plate recognition tech, but Flock also makes gunshot detection tech marketed to schools, and recently acquired public safety drone company Aerodome. Flock was founded in 2017 and went through Y Combinator that same year. Growth exploded in the subsequent years. Flock crossed over $300 million in annual recurring revenue last year, which is 70% year-over-year growth, Flock spokesperson Holly Beilin told TechCrunch. The Atlanta-based startup has now raised over $950 million in total funding, according to Pitchbook data, and its last valuation a year ago was $4.8 billion. Return investors Andreessen Horowitz, GreenOaks, Meritech Capital, Matr ... Read full article.