AURA raises a €13.5M Series B round to democratize access to emergency response services

Johannesburg, South Africa, May 16th, 2025 - AURA, a life saving technology platform making emergency response services more accessible and affordable, has raised a €13.5 million Series B funding round co-led by the Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF) and Partech. This latest round, which brings AURA’s total funding to €21 million, will fund the company’s expansion into the United States and the development of a global “clearing house” to dispatch emergency response without borders.

AURA was founded in 2017 by Warren Myers, Ryan Green, and Adam Pantanowitz in South Africa. Since then, AURA has been democratizing access to emergency response services worldwide through its smart auto-dispatch and routing platform. The technology enables people in emergencies to connect instantly with the nearest vetted private security and medical responders, making lifesaving help available anywhere, anytime.

AURA’s expansion to the United States is poised to transform the security response industry by providing fast, reliable, and cost-effective on-demand security response solutions. AURA leverages cutting-edge technology to aggregate existing security fleets and enable rapid response times, greater operational efficiency and transparency, while addressing the increasing demand for private security as a vital alternative to under-resourced police forces.

“This funding marks a pivotal moment for AURA,” says Warren Myers, Founder and CEO of AURA. “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. We have also kicked off our on-demand private security response model in the United States. Our goals are to make alarm verification faster, homes and businesses safer, and to help law enforcement focus on higher-priority incidents. I'm incredibly grateful to our partners and customers for their ongoing trust — and most importantly, to my exceptional team. Their dedication to our vision of a world where everyone feels safe is the true driving force behind everything we do.”

“Having been involved in AURA's remarkable story for the past two years, strengthening our partnership via this follow-on investment came as a natural decision to us,” comments Patricia Rinke, Investment Director at CAIF. “We trust the team’s powerful vision and extraordinary execution capabilities as it scales its life-saving technology to the U.S. market and across the world. We are equally thrilled to welcome Partech as partners in our joint mission to make emergency response universally accessible.”

"AURA has been one of the most innovative players globally in the emergency response and security industry,” says Matthieu Marchand, Principal at Partech. “We are very excited to see such innovation built in South Africa and now successfully winning across the world. It's only the beginning."

AURA’s mission aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to health and safety. AURA’s work contributes to developing safer communities (SDG 11) and improved health outcomes (SDG 3) by improving emergency response access. Since its foundation in 2017, AURA has saved over 7,500 lives via its medical and security services. 1.2 million people currently have access to AURA’s personal safety solution and 200,000 properties are secured via its fixed location services.

About AURA

AURA was born in 2017 out of the critical need to make private emergency and security response services more accessible and affordable.  As a result, AURA has created South Africa’s largest response network of over 3000 security and medical responders. Regardless of income brackets South Africans can now access security and medical response services instantly using a connected device. AURA integrates smart and scalable technology into existing customer portals, for instance, using API integration, WhatsApp, customised apps, or various IoT devices. Consequently, users are now able to offer their staff and customers instant emergency assistance as a free or paid for value-added service.

https://aura.services/

Media contact:
Harry Clynch
harry@leopardpr.io
+44780811855

About Partech
Partech is a global tech investment firm headquartered in Paris, with offices in Berlin, Dakar, Dubai, Nairobi, and San Francisco. Partech brings together capital, operational experience, and strategic support to back entrepreneurs from seed to growth stage. Born in San Francisco 40 years ago, today Partech manages €2.5B AUM and a current portfolio of 220 companies, spread across 40 countries and 4 continents.

About Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF)
CAIF is a joint venture between pan-African investment firm AfricInvest and global venture firm Cathay Innovation to invest in highly scalable and ambitious technology companies operating in Africa. The first fund is a €110m vehicle launched in 2019 that invests primarily in Series A and B stage startups. The fund is backed by a diverse pool of globally renowned investors, development finance institutions, leading multinational corporations, and high-net-worth individuals.

AfricInvest is a leading pan-African investment platform active in multiple alternative asset classes including private equity, venture capital, private credit, blended finance, and listed equities. Over the past quarter century, we have raised more than $2bn to finance more than 200 companies at various development stages, delivering value and impact for our investors, portfolio companies, and the communities we serve. Our 100-strong team of investment experts in more than ten offices across three continents has a proven track record of providing attractive risk-adjusted returns while spurring productivity growth, creating jobs, and ultimately improving African lives through inclusive and sustainable development.

Cathay Innovation is a multi-stage venture capital firm, affiliated to Cathay Capital, that goes beyond the traditional VC playbook by providing entrepreneurs the support of a global ecosystem. Its global venture capital platform - bridging entrepreneurs with innovation centers, investors and Fortune 500 companies across five continents - helps startups grow and lead on the local or global stage with access to new markets, invaluable industry knowledge and introductions to potential partners with the world’s leading corporations.

For further information on AfricInvest, contact:
ann.wyman@africinvest.com