In 2017, Filip Kaliszan pulled an all-nighter at the Beverly Hills Equinox.
A luxury gym isn’t the obvious place to work through the night, but for Kaliszan, it was a serious opportunity. Just 15 months earlier, Kaliszan had cofounded physical security tech startup Verkada, and now Equinox, the prominent fitness chain, was giving him and his startup a shot. Equinox had agreed to install some of Verkada’s still-very-new cameras in one of its most high-profile locations. At the time, Kaliszan was still personally doing installations with early employee Raj Misra. So, when Equinox called, the two flew to Los Angeles from San Francisco, cloud-enabled cameras in hand. Kaliszan, a two-time entrepreneur and photography enthusiast, showed me photos he took that (long) night.
“I was looking back at these photos, and it reminded me that they told us, ‘you have from 11:30 PM until 4 AM, that’s when the gym is closed,’” said Kaliszan. “So we flew in at nine, got there at 11. We brought boxes of gear, climbed ladders, set up through the night—then flew out at 4.”
For Kaliszan, this night marked the beginning of Verkada’s relationship with its first major customer (and, he reckons, it may have also been his first time on a scissor lift). Today, Verkada cameras are across dozens of Equinox locations.
Today, those cameras that Kaliszan installed back in 2017 are still right where he left them, but the company has grown massively. Verkada has raised a $200 million Series E, valuing the company at $4.5 billion, Fortune can exclusively report. It’s a $1 billion valuation bump in a round led by General Catalyst with substantial involvement from Eclipse Ventures. Sequoia, Meritech, Michael Dell’s MSD, First Round Capital, and Felicis are among participating investors. This brings the company’s total funding so far to $700 million.
Verkada’s bull case is this: that large enterprise customers want the same ease-of-use that comes with a consumer’s Ring or Nest camera, and that security operations should be linked to the cloud, creating a unified operating system instead of a disjointed collection of basement hard drives. Aidan Madigan-Curtis, Eclipse Ventures partner, found Verkada’s operating system potential persuasive.
“Once Verkada lands one product with a buyer—typically AI security cameras, the same buyer is likely to expand to a second Verkada product (access control) and a third (emergency alerting, etc.), to get the full benefit of Verkada’s platform,” said Madigan-Curtis via email. “In an increasingly unsafe world, these product categories are growing exponentially.”
In short, most of Verkada’s customers (a diverse group that includes luxury retailer Harry Rosen, the Salvation Army, and the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams) start like Equinox—one location, try it out, and buy more over time. The company—which just crossed 30,000 total customers—currently has 91 customers in the Fortune 500, and more than 4,700 large customers, up 43% year over year. (Verkada defines a large customer as spending $100,000 or more.)
Kaliszan said he’s not trying to reinvent the wheel on the OS strategy, so much as learn from the best.
“What Apple did really well was that when they released their phone, they focused on three things,” said Kaliszan. “It was a good phone, a good email client, and a good web browser. It didn’t have the App Store yet. It didn’t have all the bells and whistles, like the camera, yet. But the few things it did, it did really well. And every year, they’ve chiseled away to make it better and better. Twenty years later, it’s scary to compete with.”
The company’s range of products has been growing steadily in recent years, and now includes alarms, workplace management, environmental sensors, and intercoms. Verkada and Eclipse both told me that they estimate the market the company’s chasing is around $60 billion.
Verkada sits at a dizzyingly varied set of use cases—from helping retailers stop fraudulent returns to stopping vaping in schools (thousands of schools use Verkada) and, of course, serious security issues. The company says it approaches privacy concerns through the lens of accountability and clarity.
“We give people appropriate warnings about things that are off, and when they turn on,” said Kaliszan. “We educate them about what it is, what it does, and how it works.” In the Equinox, he showed me a demo: “For example, the really simple features you’re noticing here are these bubbles, these are all the people who are viewing this camera right now. Small touches like that make everyone so much more accountable.”
A few weeks ago, Kaliszan came down to Los Angeles and we walked through the Beverly Hills Equinox, where he’d put up more than a dozen of those early cameras (they look a little bit like R2D2’s head). It was Kaliszan’s first time back since that night eight years before, when his company was still new. We met the Equinox security manager who manages dozens of locations for the luxe fitness chain, and he scrolled through his Verkada app with us. Though Verkada’s camera products have evolved since that Equinox all-nighter years ago, Kaliszan is awed and relieved by the manager’s enthusiasm.
“He’s using eight-year-old Verkada products and he’s saying it’s awesome,” said Kaliszan. “For me, the product-builder, I love this. The fact that it’s something he uses every day, and he still loves it, that’s the best. This was something we conceived out of nothing in my living room—and it still works.”
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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VENTURE DEALS
- Saronic Technologies, an Austin-based autonomous surface vessels developer, raised $600 million in Series C funding, valuing the company at $4 billion. Elad Gil led the round and was joined by General Catalyst and existing investors a16z, Caffeinated Capital, and 8VC.
- Terra CO2, a Golden, Colo.-based low-carbon building materials developer, raised $82 million in Series B funding. Just Climate, Eagle Materials, and GenZero led the round and were joined by existing investor Breakthrough Energy Ventures and others.
- Hightouch, a San Francisco-based AI and data marketing platform raised $80 million in Series C funding at a valuation of $1.2 billion. Sapphire Ventures led the round and was joined by NVC, ICONIQ Growth, Amplify Partners, and others.
- Augury, a New York City-based AI-powered machine health and other industrial solutions provider, raised $75 million in Series F funding. Lightrock led the round and was joined by existing investors Insight Partners, Eclipse Ventures, Qumra Capital, and others.
- Cambridge GaN Devices, a Cambridge, England-based power devices developer, raised $32 million in Series C funding. An undisclosed investor led the round and was joined by British Patient Capital and supported by existing investors Parkwalk, BGF, Cambridge Innovation Capital, and others.
- Frontera Health, a Denver-based AI-powered autism care solutions provider, raised $32 million in seed funding. Lux Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round and were joined by Bison Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and Inspired Capital.
- Atrandi Biosciences, a Vilnius, Lithuania-based single-cell analysis technology developer, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Lux Capital led the round and was joined by Vsquared Ventures, Practica Capital, Metaplanet, and GRIDS Capital.
- Subsense, a Covina, Calif.-based non-invasive bidirectional brain-computer interface developer, raised $17 million in seed funding from Golden Falcon Capital.
- Vema Hydrogen, a Wilmington Del.-based hydrogen developer, raised $13 million in seed funding. Extantia Capital and Propeller Ventures led the round and were joined by Zero Carbon Capital, Pace Ventures, and existing investor Grantham Foundation.
- Reverb Therapeutics, a Vancouver-based cytokine-focused therapies developer, raised $12 million in funding. Existing investor Amplitude Ventures led the round and was joined by Myeloma Investment Fund, KdT Ventures, Finchley Healthcare Ventures, and others.
- ElectronX, a Chicago-based electricity exchange, raised $10 million in funding. Systemiq Capital led the round and was joined by Equinor Ventures, Shell Ventures, and Innovation Endeavors.
- Integrail, a Greenwich, Conn.-based AI agents deployment solutions provider, raised $10 million in seed funding. Ratmir Timashev led the round and was joined by others.
- Keebler Health, a Durham, N.C.-based AI-powered healthcare risk adjustment platform, raised $6 million in seed funding from Freestyle Capital, MBX Capital, New Stack Ventures, and others.
- Valid, a San Francisco-based AI-powered ad agency, raised $5.5 million in funding. Canaan Partners led the round and was joined by Neo, J Ventures, and others.
- AiDEN Auto, a San Ramon, Calif.-based in-vehicle technology company, raised $4.2 million in seed funding. Nuri Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Tengro Ventures, Band of Angels, Mentors Fund, angel investors, and others.
- Lingo.dev, a San Francisco-based AI-powered localization provider for software developers, raised $4.2 million in seed funding. Initialized Capital led the round and was joined by Y Combinator, Paul Coplestone, Grey Baker, Harry Marr, and others.
- Everstar, a New York City-based nuclear energy and industrial operations AI-powered compliance solutions provider, raised $4 million in pre-seed funding. Third Prime VC led the round and was joined by Pelican Energy Partners, EXCEL Services, Virta Ventures, angel investors, and others.
- Handly, a Berlin-based home services companies business management platform, raised €3.75 million ($3.9 million) in seed funding. 20VC and Stride VC led the round and were joined by Base10 Partners and angel investors.
- Swish Club, a Bangalore, India-based device rental and security solutions provider, raised $3.3 million in funding. Powerhouse Ventures led the round and was joined by Blume Ventures, Founders Fund, Touchstone Ventures, and others.
- Riley, a San Francisco-based AI-powered baby tracker and parenting platform, raised $3.1 million in seed funding. True Ventures led the round and was joined by Flybridge, Next Wave NYC, and Lindsay Kaplan.
- Serverpod, a Stockholm-based backend development platform for Flutter developers, raised $2.8 million in seed funding. node.vc led the round and was joined by Greens Ventures and PreSeed Ventures.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- AE Industrial acquired United Building Solutions (UBS), a Pennsauken, N.J.-based HVAC services provider. UBS acquired Total Comfort Solutions, a Jacksonville-based HVAC services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Easton Select Group, a portfolio company of Brenton Point Capital Partners, acquired Environmental Pools, a Bolton, Mass.-based pool designer, builder, and service provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Flourish Research, backed by Genstar Capital, acquired Diablo Clinical Research, a Walnut Creek, Calif.-based therapeutic clinical research company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- One Equity Partners agreed to acquire Wheeler Fleet Solutions, a Somerset, Pa.-based fleet parts distributor and services provider, from VSE. Financial terms were not disclosed.
OTHER
- Shift4 agreed to acquire Global Blue, an Eysins, Switzerland-based tax-free shopping, currency conversion, and payment solutions provider, for $7.50 per common share in cash and at an enterprise value of approximately $2.5 billion.
- Light & Wonder agreed to acquire the charitable gaming assets of Grover Gaming, a Greenville, N.C.-based electronic pull-tabs company, for $850 million in cash.
- Barings agreed to acquire Artemis Real Estate Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate investment firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Deepwatch acquired Dassana, a San Mateo-based security intelligence solutions provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS
- Madison River Capital, a New York City-based private equity firm, raised $370 million for its first fund focused on healthcare services, industrials, and business services.
PEOPLE
- Buoyant Ventures, a Chicago-based venture capital firm, promoted Laura Katzman and Alex Behar to partner.
- TSG Consumer Partners, a Larkspur, Calif.-based private equity firm, promoted Beth Pickens to head of its London office.