Flock Safety and one of its long-time investors, Bedrock Capital, announced on Thursday that the startup secured a new $275 million funding round, boosting its valuation to $7.5 billion.
Flock specializes in computer vision-enabled video surveillance technology used by law enforcement, businesses, and property management companies. The company is best known for its automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) technology but also offers gunshot detection systems marketed to schools. Additionally, Flock recently acquired Aerodome, a public safety drone company.
Founded in 2017, Flock participated in Y Combinator that same year. Its growth surged in the following years, surpassing $300 million in annual recurring revenue last year—a 70% year-over-year increase, according to Flock spokesperson Holly Beilin in an interview with TechCrunch.
The Atlanta-based startup has now raised over $950 million in total funding, according to PitchBook data. Just a year ago, its valuation stood at $4.8 billion. This latest round saw participation from return investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Greenoaks, Meritech Capital, Matrix Partners, and Y Combinator.
Controversy faced by Flock regarding Funding
Given its focus on surveillance technology, Flock has faced controversy. The ACLU has expressed concerns over mass surveillance and, last year, urged the company to allow independent product reviews. Meanwhile, privacy advocates in Norfolk, Virginia, are currently suing to prevent Flock’s deployment in the area.
Additionally, Flock is embroiled in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a sitting mayor from a small California town, as recently reported by TechCrunch.
Despite these challenges, Flock has remained a favorite among venture capitalists. Bedrock’s founder, Geoff Lewis, recalled flying to Atlanta in 2018 to persuade Flock co-founder Garrett Langley to accept a $10 million Series A-1 investment—one of the first deals from Lewis’ new firm. At the time, Langley had just closed Flock’s Series A funding round.
That deal, described by Bedrock as “totally insane,” valued Flock at $60 million—triple the valuation of its Series A just months earlier. Langley ultimately accepted the investment and has since secured more than $164 million from Bedrock alone.
Lewis, a former Founders Fund investor, has built Bedrock’s portfolio to include major names such as OpenAI, Rippling, and Mach Industries.
Meanwhile, Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism fund, led by David Ulevitch, has also backed Flock. In 2021, Ulevitch and a16z growth investor David George praised the company, stating, “Beyond protecting property, Flock Safety is literally helping to save lives.”
YC’s Garry Tan recently took to LinkedIn to highlight Flock’s claimed success rate in crime prevention.
Ultimately, Flock’s revenue growth and its expanding portfolio of public safety products continue to attract investor confidence, leading them to repeatedly increase their stakes, Beilin noted.
