Toronto-based startup Legio has raised $5 million USD ($7 million CAD) in seed funding to build out its time-saving platform for campus security officers.<\/p>\n
\u200bFounded this past April by CEO Darren Hill, CTO Mike Wertman, and CPO Joe Crampton, Legio helps campus security teams manage their dispatch, incident response, casework, and patrols, while making it easier to keep up with reports and other compliance requirements. The AI-native platform helps officers file the right reports for the right incidents, automatically populates relevant information, and notifies any relevant department, if needed. It\u2019s work Legio sees as vital for campus security teams that it says spend about 40 percent of their time on paperwork instead of on patrol.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work of documenting the shift crowds out the work of protecting the campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bLegio\u2019s seed round will fund its product development and new engineering hires. The company is also trying to grow its design partner program, which brings in post-secondary institutions to use and provide feedback on its platform. Hill told BetaKit that the program is working with two institutions so far.<\/p>\n
\u200bIn a statement, Hill said that up to this point campus public safety often runs on platforms \u201cbuilt for generic enterprise and bolted on for higher education.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cTeams carry heavy reporting obligations on top of round-the-clock operations, and the work of documenting the shift crowds out the work of protecting the campus,\u201d Hill said. \u201cWe\u2019re rebuilding the category from the ground up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bLegio looks to bolster the ability of campus safety staff as discourse around campus surveillance intensifies. The Breach reported last month that Canadian universities made a coordinated effort to spy on participants in pro-Palestinian student demonstrations, eventually leading to the removal of encampments and at least one lawsuit. Hill told BetaKit that Legio isn\u2019t a surveillance platform; rather, it operates across all of campus safety to bring \u201cthe right teams together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cOur focus is not about arming campus police, but rather involving Student Affairs, Residence Life, conflict resolution, and Campus Safety teams in safety matters,\u201d Hill told BetaKit in an email. \u201cThis collaborative approach allows us to reach the appropriate resolution for the wellbeing of everyone involved\u2014ideally before an incident occurs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bLegio\u2019s new funding comes entirely from Toronto-based growth equity firm Klass Capital, which has backed Canadian companies like AlayaCare, Manifest Climate, and security platform TrackTik. Klass also has a unique connection to Legio: Hill works for the firm as an operating partner, and Wertman is also Klass\u2019s CTO.<\/p>\n
\u200bHill told BetaKit that he and Wertman assist Klass\u2019 portfolio companies as members of the operating team, but they realized there was \u201ca really interesting opportunity to build something from the ground up that could solve a difficult and genuine problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cWhen [managing partner] Daniel Klass was presented with the idea of being part of what we were building, he was excited by the opportunity,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n
\u200bFor his part, Klass said in a statement that Legio is the kind of vertical software his firm looks for.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cDarren, Mike, and Joe bring the domain expertise to rebuild it, and their AI-native architecture is the right foundation for a market this overdue for change,\u201d Klass said.<\/p>\n
\u200bFeature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Obi.<\/p>\n