Vizgard, a London-based company that automates security cameras, has secured €1.7 million to scale Vizgard’s engineering and business development capabilities and establish international distribution to accelerate growth.
The funding round was led by Sure Valley Ventures (SVV), with participation from Midwich Ignite and Focal.
Alex Kehoe, Founder of Vizgard: “The UK has all the ingredients to lead the world in defence AI, but the pace of transitioning from Proof of Concept to deployment is lagging. From the beginning, we focused on developing AI that could deliver the most immediate impact – operating at the edge, within or near moving cameras. Whether on land, in the air, or at sea, this approach ensures systems can react faster, act independently if GPS or communication is lost, and even act collaboratively to provide more actionable feedback. We’re excited to welcome our new investors onboard who are aligned with our mission to fully automate the cameras that protect us, while maintaining public privacy.”
Founded in early 2021 by former Royal Navy submariner Alex Kehoe, Vizgard responds to a growing need for reliable AI-powered automation in the Defence sector, where operational demands continue to outpace existing capabilities.
A recently published report from the House of Commons Defence Committee highlighted a significant disconnect between the UK’s strategic vision for defence AI and its practical implementation – a gap that Vizgard is determined to help close.
Vizgard’s FortifAI software platform harnesses low-power, commercially available processors to enhance a broad range of systems, including security cameras, counter-drone technologies, and unmanned vehicles. It provides precise, real-time threat identification and automatic camera control, reportedly reducing operator workload.
By combining field-proven traditional computer vision with cutting-edge Deep Learning models, FortifAI looks to ensure robust performance in real-world scenarios. The platform also includes Vizgard’s proprietary Behaviour Risk Index algorithm, which calculates a human-explainable danger probability score while automatically blurring faces to protect privacy.
This innovation enables automatic alerts for previously unaddressed complex safety events, such as identifying and responding to vulnerable individuals who are being attacked or at risk of self-harm.
The funding will accelerate Vizgard’s ambition to bridge critical gaps in camera-based Defence and Public Safety systems.
Vizgard has secured contracts from the Ministry of Defence, HMGCC Co-Creation, several leading defence technology companies and a major UK transport organisation. Vizgard’s customers include Sesanti, a leading British camera manufacturer and multiple national-remit police departments.
The company is also part of a €14.2 million Innovate UK consortium, led by Altitude Angel, developing a 165-mile drone superhighway. The UK Home Office also recently awarded Vizgard a contract to develop a portable knife-detection solution powered by its proprietary solution, FortifAI.
Brian Kinane, Founding Partner, Sure Valley Ventures: “Vizgard is tackling the growing need for time-critical visual intelligence and precision camera automation in security and defence solutions. Their technology addresses important AI reliability concerns through a robust ‘systems approach’, identifying threats that would have been missed and allowing stronger performance in new environments. With the rapidly growing demand for AI in Defence and Security, and the team’s deep domain expertise, we believe Vizgard has the potential to become a global leader in AI vision automation.”
Vizgard is a veteran-founded and multi-award-winning SME advancing sovereign UK Artificial Intelligence (AI) capability to automate time-critical security and defence optical systems. Their distributed visual AI platform, FortifAI, integrates with existing camera infrastructure, leveraging low-power commercial edge processors to deliver real-time threat detection and autonomous operation. By combining traditional computer vision with cutting-edge deep learning, Vizgard enhances situational awareness, reduces operator workload, and enables faster, more accurate responses to evolving threats in complex environments.
