Next Generation 911 technology improves emergency response by incorporating voice, text, and video capabilities, enhancing communication flexibility and efficiency. The integration of artificial intelligence further augments the accuracy, efficiency, and accessibility of emergency services—a critical advancement given the annual volume of 240M 911 calls. Prepared is an AI and cloud-based platform that optimizes emergency response systems. The platform equips 911 centers with real-time translation services, advanced speech processing, and precise location data for each incoming call. The system instantly transcribes calls from 33 different languages and intelligently highlights key details like location and suspect descriptions, ensuring critical information is immediately available to operators, dispatchers, and response teams in the field. The platform also provides live translation of operator responses for Spanish-speaking callers, effectively eliminating the need for human translators. This capability not only streamlines communication but also ensures that language barriers do not impede the delivery of emergency services. Prepared works with over 1,000 different agencies across 49 states, collectively serving a population of 97M individuals.
AlleyWatch caught up with Prepared CEO and Cofounder Michael Chime to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, which brings the company’s total funding raised to $57M, and much, much more…
Who were your investors, and how much did you raise?
$27M Series B funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from First Round Capital, M13, and NewView Capital.
Tell us about the product or service that Prepared offers.
Prepared’s assistive, AI-powered platform has transformed the way telecommunicators do their jobs, and we’ve only just tapped the surface when it comes to the potential of unlocking the power of life-saving data. At our core, providing resilient, AI-powered infrastructure that powers the entities, keeping civilians safe while mitigating external threats across the evolving enterprise tech landscape, is our purpose.
Our goal has always been to incorporate previously inaccessible, life-saving data into emergency response, which was:
Our flagship product, Prepared Assist, does that by enabling 911 centers to receive next-generation media, real-time GPS location, and execute two-way text communication between caller and call-taker. Now that 911 is able to access this data, among a variety of other things they have to balance on a given call, we want to help them focus on the data that matters most: that which will help improve safety for field responders and the caller, increasing the likelihood of everyone returning home safely.
To do that, we incorporated assistive AI into the platform, allowing call-takers to see a live transcript of the call, translating non-English audio in 33 languages, and pulling out key insights, such as addresses, suspect descriptions, emergency descriptions, and more, so that the call-taker and dispatcher have the most critical information highlighted and easily accessible.
Additionally, we recently launched the availability of text-to-voice translation, a text-to-speech feature for Spanish 911 calls. This has been a high-priority request from agencies that otherwise depend on language translators that can sometimes take several minutes to join a call after a request, making it nearly impossible to process urgent non-English 911 calls according to standards. The National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Standard for Emergency Services Communications is that urgent 911 calls should be processed in 60 seconds or less, 90% of the time, from the moment the call is answered until emergency resources are alerted.
What inspired the start of Prepared?
We founded Prepared with a mission to improve public safety after growing up in areas affected by school shootings. In 2012, I saw a nearby community devastated by a school shooting, where a former student shot six students, killing three. Neal and Dylan grew up less than 15 minutes from Sandy Hook Elementary, so all three of us experienced the unfortunate reality of this generational crisis.
Soon after launch in 2019, prepared technology had reached over a hundred schools around the United States. In 2020, we dropped out of Yale after our junior year. In the process of growing the school-focused application, we discovered a new gap: between communities and 911. While consumer technology had advanced rapidly, that of our emergency lines lagged. Despite 85% of the 240M 911 calls per year originating from wireless devices, 911 technology is still built as if they’re coming from landlines.
So, in October of 2021, to prevent the continued loss of valuable, life-saving data, we launched Prepared Live, a free software enabling callers to livestream and share other lifesaving data directly with 911. Early growth secured us the second-largest seed round in the history of public safety: $9.8M. After signing 10% of all American 911 centers as clients by April 2023, we secured our $16M series A funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz. Today, Prepared partners help protect over 90M people in 49 states, have helped save countless lives, and have been featured in hundreds of new outlets, including TechCrunch, NBC’s TODAY Show, the New York Post, and Forbes.
How is Prepared different?
By synthesizing and displaying data, centralized on a single screen and supplemented by a supervisory view that allows agency leaders to monitor multiple calls at once from wherever they are, we fundamentally alter the capabilities of the 911 center. With critical information identified faster, emergency response moves faster. With the ability to better understand the caller’s perspective via media and text, an emergency response is more accurate. No other platform achieves everything that Prepared Assist achieves within a single interface. With the launch of Emergency SOS Live Video within iOS 18, it becomes even easier for the caller to share the data that might save their life.
What market does Prepared target, and how big is it?
We sell directly to thousands of public safety agencies across the country, including dedicated 911 centers, police departments, sheriff’s offices, and fire departments.
What’s your business model?
Similar to other SaaS businesses that follow a unit-based method, we are call volume-based.
How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?
While we keep an eye on macroeconomic trends, we are bullish about continued investments in public safety—mainly because of the opportunity in front of us to help equip this sector with modern technology, the benefits of which are truly transformational in nature. We will be laser-focused on execution, including growing our team, expanding our reach, and realizing our vision for public safety through the power of assistive AI.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
a16z, who led the round, Partner David Ulevitch said, “We’ve received glowing customer feedback on Prepared as they’ve continued to grow quickly through word-of-mouth among 911 professionals as operators experience the lifesaving benefits of the technology. It’s been amazing to see all the company has achieved so quickly, and we’re excited to support them as they continue to build this meaningful company.”
First Round Capital Partner Meka Asonye said, “Prepared is bringing cutting-edge technology to an often overlooked but critical sector. Their rapid growth from 16 cities to protecting nearly 30% of the U.S. population demonstrates not just the urgent need for their solution but also their ability to execute and save lives at scale. I knew when we invested in Prepared’s seed round back in 2021 that this team was special. They had a deeply personal motivation to solve a real-world problem. They’re focused on genuinely useful applications of AI for an often overlooked but critical sector that’s still running on legacy landline-era tech. Since then, their focus on executing and saving lives at scale has been seriously impressive. Every time I think about how they’ve expanded from working with just a few cities to now partnering with ~1K agencies that help protect around 30% of the U.S. population, I’m blown away. At First Round, we’re thrilled to be partners with Prepared on their journey to getting to 100% coverage, transforming public safety in America along the way.”
M13 Partner Karl Alomar said, “’We first invested in Prepared due to a combination of their vision to modernize public safety and the inspiring quality of their young founding team. As we see the level of positive impact and disruption that Prepared has brought to the category, we continue to invest and support the efforts of what has proven to be a best-in-class management team.’
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
There are a number of challenges technology can be leveraged for to make the call-taking experience better. We will continue to build and ship capabilities to expand upon our existing capabilities.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
At Prepared, we are absolutely obsessed with our customers. You have to be lasered in on solving the problems that matter to them. The more you do that, the better you’re able to build them the toolbox to help achieve their goals and, by extension, your company’s.
What’s your favorite fall destination in and around the city?
I love spending time in Central Park, especially as the weather changes and the leaves begin to fall. It’s just so beautiful, and there’s no better place to spend a weekend afternoon.
