While experts argue about whether Homeland Security (HLS) is the next big thing or just the latest high-tech hype, ioImage, a start-up company owned by Israel and Roni Kass, and US security company Safeguards Technology, owned by Moshe Levy, have announced the setting up of a joint company to provide security products. The new company will market ioImage's security products in the US. It has already signed contracts worth several million dollars.
IoImage is a privately-held company owned by Israel Kass, one of the main shareholders in Israel Phoenix Assurance and vehicle import company Mayer's Cars and Trucks, and his son Roni. The company was founded in 2000, without venture capital backing. Kass father and son have invested some $11 million of their own money in the company.
In the first two years of its existence, ioImage aimed at the entertainment market, and developed a product to serve as the infrastructure for interactive television and Internet. In 2002, the company changed direction. Roni Kass: "Because of the crisis in Internet and entertainment, we decided to turn to the security market. In 2003, we made the switch, and upgraded the technology, and at the beginning of this year we began to sell our security products. We are now thinking of raising $10 million, probably from venture capital funds, to accelerate the company's progress.
ioImage's technology makes it possible to analyze information from security cameras deployed around sensitive sites in real time. It can help identify attempted incursions, spot suspect objects, and monitor moving threats automatically. Kass says the system is being tested by various Israeli security organizations, and at the official US testing center Sandia National Laboratories.
Kass says that the joint company set up with Safeguards Technology is mainly for providing support and service to US customers. "Since we are trying to sell to sensitive organizations, we want to provide immediate, quick support to our customers."
The company's solutions are installed at the Knesset in Israel, and, according to Kass, it recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement with C. Mer, the integrator for security at the Athens Olympic Games. "We will have some products installed at the Olympics, but the agreement is mainly aimed at installing the company's products at strategic organizations in the US, including at military organizations," Kass says.
Safeguards, founded by Moshe Levy, recently won a contract worth $20 million for securing nuclear power plants in the US. Among its many customers are dozens of US prisons, and giant companies Dupont, Boeing, and Chevron.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on June 8, 2004