Investors greeted ShotSpotter with a warm reception on Wednesday, on its first day as a public company. After pricing the IPO at $11, the stock closed at $13.86, or up about 26%. <\/p>\n
ShotSpotter notifies police departments about gun violence by using sensors that ignore ambient noise. Their sophisticated technology alerts authorities within 45 seconds of the trigger being pulled. <\/p>\n
Its currently used in about 90 cities, including New York, Chicago and San Francisco. ShotSpotter estimates that about 80% of gun violence goes unreported, and they are in the process of convincing municipalities worldwide that their technology will reduce fatalities. <\/p>\n
According to CEO Ralph Clark, its not just about catching assailants, but they hope to deter crime also. Nopolice responseleads to normalization of gun violence, he claims. <\/p>\n
Shotspotter makes money by charging local governments on an annual subscription basis. According to their IPO filing, they had just $15.5 million in revenue last year and $11.8 million the year before. Losses increased from $6.2 million to $6.9 million in that timeframe. <\/p>\n
That is likely why the IPO was so small, raising just over $30 million. They will be using some of the proceeds to pay down debt. <\/p>\n
But they are optimistic they will expand to more cities, because clearly gun violence is a fairly big problem in the U.S. and globally, said Clark. We want to continue to invest in customer success, he said. <\/p>\n
The largest stakeholders are Lauder Partners, Motorola Solutions and Claremont Creek Ventures. The Mountain View, CA.-based company previously raised at least $67 million in funding. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
See the original post here:<\/p>\n
Gunshot detection technology ShotSpotter soars 26% in public debut - TechCrunch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Investors greeted ShotSpotter with a warm reception on Wednesday, on its first day as a public company. After pricing the IPO at $11, the stock closed at $13.86, or up about 26%. ShotSpotter notifies police departments about gun violence by using sensors that ignore ambient noise Continue reading