- Autonomous security robot (“ASR”) developer Knightscope is experiencing a marked growth in investment interest through its Reg A+ offering, now counting more than 20,000 private financial backers
- CEO William Santana Li told interviewer IPO Edge the company has a plan to eventually go public, but continues to value the backing of police officers, federal law enforcement officers, corporate security officers and investment bankers with skin in the game
- The ASRs utilize artificial intelligence to monitor client properties and machine learning tools to successfully navigate during their patrols, with indoor and outdoor models available
- Knightscope’s ASRs help minimize risks to human personnel of physical harm, tedium and infection during the ongoing pandemic
Security robot manufacturer Knightscope rolled out its first autonomous product in 2015 and has watched its fanbase steadily grow during the years since then, topping 20,000 investors in February following a quick burst of new energy on the public involvement front.
During a virtual fireside interview with IPO Edge in December (when Knightscope was still reporting investors at the 17,000 level), CEO William Santana Li explained the importance of the company’s Reg A+ offering that allows Knightscope to attract private investments between $500 and $10 million online without launching a public IPO, although the company maintains a plan to go public eventually (https://ibn.fm/GsMB1). You can read about what the Company can legally say at this time about a public listing here.
“Do you know who our investors are? NYPD detectives, FBI, CIA, DHS, investment bankers, recruiters, great legal minds, chief security officers of major corporations, vice presidents of leasing of major malls and REITs. … They’re financially motivated to help the company,” Li said.
“Folks that look at this and they’re like, ‘Ah, you did this equity crowdfunding type of stuff,’ like in a negative type of way. And I’m like, ‘You know, what do you think Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley do all day? Someone files an S1 and what is that? That is one massive global equity crowdfunding exercise to get every Tom, Dick and Harry to write a check,” Li added. “If you look at the mission, you’re trying to secure the entire U.S. and you’re serious about it, do you really think four VCs sitting in a room, worried about all the wrong things, is how you’re going to change the world? You’re going to have to do this piece by piece and you’re going to need a lot of support.”
Knightscope’s strategy is to deliver autonomous security robots (“ASRs”) that harness A.I. developments, giving them the capacity to monitor broadcasts, thermal signatures and physical surroundings in 360-degree environments while recording what they detect and reporting it back to a monitoring center.
The company promotes its sentries’ ability to patrol facilities indoors and outdoors on a 24/7 basis 365 days a year, removing humans from front-line interactions until it’s necessary for them to intervene and thereby minimizing some of the hazards arising from armed confrontations, tedium and contagion during the currently ongoing pandemic.
Li acknowledged that there have been hurdles to overcome along the way and that everything has not gone perfectly, but also noted that the company’s robots have been popular enough that clients often have naming ceremonies to welcome the newest robotic members of their personnel teams and that members of the public have sometimes been known to hug or kiss them.
“Henry Ford (the founder of the Ford Motor Company and chief developer of the assembly line that drove mass production techniques) once stated, ‘If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.’ Sometimes you just have to create something all new that’s never been done before,” Li says in an investor relations video on the company’s website (https://ibn.fm/ZWM5b). “We’re blazing that new trail in law enforcement, physical security and public safety.”
The company’s robots are operating across the country’s five continental time zones, and Li noted in the fireside interview that the company has arrived at a point in its history where “every issue that we’ve got in the building we can fix with people, cash and time.” While some competitors have arisen over the years and more may yet arise, Li said, “At this point, I think we’re the worldwide leader and hope to maintain that leadership.”
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Knightscope.com.
Visit www.Knightscope.com/invest for a summary of Knightscope as an investment, with a blue Instant Messaging button for direct contact with their CEO.
DISCLAIMER: You should read the Offering Circular and risks related to this offering before investing. This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC. This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Knightscope are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/Knight
