Emergency Response Startup Hyper Launches with $6.3 Million Seed Round

Ben Sanders, the founder of emergency response startup Hyper, stated that his life experiences have led him to this moment. The company announced on Monday that it has secured a $6.3 million seed round led by Eniac Ventures and is officially emerging from stealth mode.

Growing up, Sanders had a strong desire to become a police officer, which was evident from his childhood antics, including wearing a homemade police uniform. As he grew older, his interests shifted to the intersection of technology and government, and he even ran for federal office at one point.

About a year ago, Sanders came across an article about his hometown’s efforts to utilize AI to reduce wait times for emergency services. This sparked an idea in him, and he realized that AI could be leveraged to handle non-emergency calls, freeing up resources for critical calls that require immediate attention.

Sanders partnered with his friend Damian McCabe to launch Hyper, an AI-powered voice company that can manage some 911 calls. The product aims to address the non-emergency calls that take up valuable time and resources, allowing call-takers to focus on life-or-death situations. Sanders serves as the CEO, while McCabe is the company’s Chief Product Officer.

Currently, individuals who want to contact their local police department often have to dial a 10-digit number, which routes them to the same personnel who handle 911 calls. This can lead to delays and inefficiencies, as non-emergency calls can tie up resources and prevent critical calls from being answered promptly.

Sanders illustrated the problem by describing a scenario where a call-taker is stuck on an eight-minute call about a barking dog, only to answer the next call late and hear the distressed voice of a child whose father has collapsed. Hyper’s solution is designed to mitigate such situations by answering questions, sending links, forwarding calls, and taking non-emergency police reports.

The Hyper system is designed to play it safe, automatically escalating calls to human experts if they fall outside the approved scope or sound like they may be emergencies. This ensures that critical calls receive the attention they require while minimizing the burden on call-takers.

Sanders described the fundraising process for Hyper as intense and fast-paced, taking less than two months to complete. The round was oversubscribed and included participation from Ripple Ventures, GreatPoint Ventures, VSC Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, and K5 Global, in addition to Eniac Ventures. Sanders credited a mutual acquaintance for introducing him to his connection at Eniac Ventures.

With the fresh capital, Hyper plans to scale its operations across the country, integrate more closely with existing 911 systems, hire a head of engineering, and develop its next product. While there is competition in this space, such as Aurelian, Sanders believes that Hyper’s focus on 911 and its training models, which utilize real 911 calls with local agencies, set it apart from other solutions.

“We support more languages and have already gone live with many centers, which is a significant operational hurdle in government and public safety,” Sanders said. By addressing the non-emergency calls, Hyper hopes to reduce the stress associated with being a 911 caller and potentially attract more people to the profession, which is currently understaffed and struggling to hire.

“It’s such a tough job, I don’t even know if I could do it,” Sanders acknowledged. However, he is confident that his technology can help call-takers and dispatchers, the unsung heroes of emergency response, by reducing their burden and ultimately helping to save lives.