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This past year put a spotlight on the importance of faster and more effective emergency response.

That's something that RapidSOS has been working on for the past eight years. The company, which built a platform to make it easier for first response teams to do their jobs, just banked $85 million to scale its technology.

The need for critical, life-saving data was never more apparent than in 2020 when the world faced unprecedented emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and domestic threats like the Christmas Day Nashville bombing.

Disruption, Acceleration & Innovation: Pharmacists on the Frontline

This year, pharmacists will play a critical role in the United States COVID-19 immunization efforts. Although this is welcomed news, this new duty and other coronavirus responsibilities are exacerbating pharmacist burnout. In this panel, experts will explore how pharmacists can leverage technology to automate administrative tasks and satisfy patient needs.

RapidSOSaims to transform emergency response and disaster management by connecting emergency data from digital health, smart buildings, security, connected vehicles, and app companies with emergency responders.RapidSOS provides their software free for 911 centers and works with connected device makers and technology companies to embed their technology into their emergency calling and SOS features.

The company's Series C funding round was led by global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners. The investmentbrings RapidSOSs total funding to $200 million.

RELATED:American Heart Association, RapidSOS team up to link emergency responders with patients' medical data

2020 reminded all of us of the heroic work that first responders do in our most challenging moments, said Michael Martin, founder and CEO of RapidSOS in a statement. We spent the past eight years building the RapidSOS emergency response data platform in partnership with thousands of first responderscollaborating with leading technology companies to provide the right data, at the right place, at the right time to save lives across over 150 million emergencies annually.

Data from the RapidSOS platform was used in over 150 million emergencies during 2020, or on average, more than 400,000per day. In some cases, RapidSOS' technologybecame the critical link between citizens and first responders when traditional voice 911 circuits went down in major disasters or attacks.

Through the platform, RapidSOS provides data that supports over 4,800 emergency communications centers across the U.S., covering 92% of the population.

RELATED:Health tech funding snapshotGoogle joins $50M round in Viz.ai, Augmedix raises $19M and more

RapidSOS currently links more than 350 millionconnected devices to emergency services and first responders.These devices, recognized as RapidSOS ready, transmit real-time location, health and medical information, connected building and alarm dataand more in an emergency.

For example, the RapidSOS platform connects crash impact and occupant data from the following sources with 911 and first responders in an emergency: connected vehicles, critical health and medical information from medical profiles, wearables and devices, and connected building/alarm, address, sensorand multimedia.

The medical ID feature on an iPhone also enables people to share medical information with 911. In collaboration with the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association, and Direct Relief, RapidSOS launched the Emergency Health Profile, a simple and free way for anyone to share their health data with 911.

Insight has a history of backing category-defining companies, and RapidSOS has all the makings of one in the emergency response space, said Nikitas Koutoupes, managing director at Insight Partners. We are excited to have our team of software ScaleUp and platform experts help drive RapidSOSs mission.

Link:
RapidSOS lands $85M to integrate connected devices, smart buildings with emergency responders - FierceHealthcare

IoT security startup Armis has doubled its valuation to $2 billion in less than a year thanks to a new funding round that aims to open new business opportunities in health care, manufacturing and retail as the startup pursues its ambitions of going public.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company announced Tuesday that it has raised a $125 million funding round from Brookfield Technology Partners the investment arm of alternative asset management company Brookfield Asset Management that manages more than $575 billion of assets and other investors.

[Related: Akamai Buys IoT Security Vendor Inverse To Better Spot Devices]

The firm said it decided to invest in Armis, which has more than 350 employees, after hearing about the issues of identifying and managing connected devices from chief information security officers across Brookfields various businesses.

Brookfield underwent a thorough year-long industry evaluation, and it was clear that Armis was the only platform able to serve and scale globally across the vast industries in which we operate whether it be infrastructure, real estate, renewables, healthcare or telecom, said Josh Raffaelli, managing partner at Brookfield Technology Partners, in a statement.

The round brings the companys total funding to $300 million. The deal also included participation from Insight Partners, which had acquired Armis last year at a $1.1 billion valuation; CapitalG, Alphabets growth fund; and Georgian Partners, a firm that focuses on high-growth software companies.

Yevgeny Dibrov, CEO and co-founder of Armis, told CRN that the Brookfield deal will create new opportunities for Armis to sell its agentless device security platform into more than 100 Brookfield-owned businesses located across more than 30 countries that cover manufacturing, health care, retail, renewable energy and real estate.

Dibrov said the issue is pressing as malicious actors look to take advantage of unsecured IoT devices and operational technology assets to launch ransomware attacks, among other kinds of cyberattacks. Attacks on health care organizations are up from last year, and manufacturers in what Dibrov called the COVID workflow producing vaccines and tests for the coronavirus are also under threat.

Weve seen a lot of risk there, and a lot of targeting by attackers there, he said, adding that such attacks could stall operations.

Operational technology, which includes things like SCADA controls and energy monitoring systems, has becoming an increasing focus for Armis in the past two years, and Dibrov said one of his goals this year is to solidify the companys leadership in OT security.

Dibrov also sees opportunity with the many organizations that continue to have their employees work from home, which is creating new security challenges. To address them, the company rolled out the Armis Asset Management solution as a standalone offering in January, giving organizations expanded visibility and control of devices and systems that are remotely connecting to corporate networks.

Based on a lot of customer feedback, weve been working on that for more than more than a year, Dibrov said, adding that customers were looking for a solution that would allow them to view all their assets, from cloud instances and virtual machines to laptops at employees homes, in one place.

The Brookfield deal means new potential opportunities for Armis channel partners, which are supported by a services-focused partner program that launched last year, according to Dibrov. The company plans to use a portion of the new funding to expand the companys partner organization, which covers 130 total partners now and is led by former Symantec channel executive Peter Doggart.

In terms of our business and across all the Brookfield entities, we are going to involve our partners from a variety of different types, Dibrov said.

As part of the new funding round, Armis disclosed that its revenue has grown more than 750 percent over the past two years while its customer base which includes Sysco, Fresenius Medical Care, Home Depot, Mondelez and Oracle has increased by over 425 percent. And the company is on track to double its business again this year, according to Armis CFO Jonathan Carr.

Michael Parker, the companys CMO, declined to say how much of total revenue partners are contributing, but he said they are driving a significant amount of customer deals.

Weve seen such a ramp up, even during this past year, of our partners, where theyre really becoming an equal player in what theyre bringing to the table for Armis, he said. And thats one of the reasons we want to invest there.

While many IoT security startups are getting acquired, Dibrov said he intends for Armis to become a publicly traded company through an initial public offering, adding that the company has the right strategy and a huge, total addressable market.

We are building our business with the support of Brookfield now, the folks at Insight and CapitalG, towards an IPO, he said. This is why we are a building a platform.

Carr, who was brought in last year, said while the company is working towards being public-ready, Armis is well-funded and well-backed, calling the latest round opportunistic. He added that the company plans to hire 100 to 200 people in the next year.

An IPO is something that were excited about, but its certainly not something that we necessarily feel like we need to do from a funding perspective, he said.

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IoT Security Startup Armis Doubles Valuation To $2B With $125M Round - CRN

The Omaha, Neb. software giant is seeking to supply pent-up demand created by the COVID-19 pandemic after many brokers saw the benefits of working independently from home.

Brooke's Note: Like in politics, two credible sources in the RIA world can look at a wall and one can say it's black when the other sees white. In this case, we have two credible sources saying 2020 was an off year for breakaways and two other sources saying it was good -- even hot. Fortunately this article doesn't rely on being sure about either one. For certain, Orion is investing considerable time and resources to spur breakaway activity to fill a void it is willing to bet it can fill. There can be no doubt these two events are not "digital" or "tech" events in disguise considering that the Omaha firm is calling them breakaway boot camps. Meanwhile, you can't help wonder if more is going on here? Are RIA custodians less of a presence in recruiting wirehouse brokers after 2020 was another year of radical fee compression in money market funds, bank deposits, revenue sharing and the completezeroing out of sales commissions?

Eric Clarke says he plans todirectly woo breakaway brokers this year--an unusual move for the CEO of asoftware firm--aftera 20% slide in 2020 recruiting, but some recruiters say he may have just missed the boat in a tough but hot market.

WhileOrion Advisor Servicesdoesn't technically recruit, Clarke says his firm is constantly speaking with advisors before they're ready to go independent.

"Weve always been supportive of helping advisors make a break to independence. Sometimes advisors call us first, sometimes they call a custodian, sometimes a compliance consultant," he says.

Louis Diamond, president of Morristown, N.J.-based Diamond Consultants saysdon't presume that the breakaway broker movement took a year off in 2020.

"It was the busiest recruitment year since 2014 in terms of advisors moving," he says. "I definitely don't think it was slower."

This year is already proving to be another stellar year, Diamond says. "We're very bullish on advisor recruitment for 2021 and the breakaway movement."

But Diamond's view is by no means universal.

My sense is there definitely were a lot less breakaways," saysAlois Pirker, senioranalyst with Aite Group."Everyone in the market has had this, deer in the headlights reaction, and advisors needed to make sure their clients were OK.

Hard numbers are hard to come by, butInvestmentNews Researchtracks breakaways and called the pace "blistering" in 2020. "The numbers are way up, even as firms struggle amid the COVID-19 pandemic," it said, reporting on the first nine months of the year.

RIAs saw a net gain of 931 financial advisers whojumped from one firm to another, a slight decline compared with 998 advisersduring the same period in 2019.

Independent broker-dealers, discounters, and regional broker-dealers all gained, while institutional firms, banks, insurance broker-dealers and wirehouses saw net losses.

LPL Financial, Fidelity Brokerage Services and Cambridge Investment Research were leaders in recruitment gains. See:LPL Financial hires new 'digital' head of recruiting -- IBM exec Scott Posner -- after the old school approach was leaking oil

Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo Clearing Services and Edward Jones led for net recruiting losses, according to InvestmentNews. See:Timing of Morgan Stanley's Broker Protocol withdrawal sends shocks through RIA legal and recruiting circles

A lot of advisors are accustomed to a 30-minute commute. But, weve been working from home for the past 9-10 months and now they realize that going independent means they can have the flexibility to work from home, Clarke says.

Working from home may in fact be an additional nudge to advisors to leave their current firms for separate reasons than just the commute, Diamond says.

"They're beginning to question why they're paying so much money to the firms and working at home helped them realizethey were more independent than they thought they were," he explains.

In 2020, Clarke says his firm helped 100 advisors breakaway, a 20% decline, from the previous year. He blames the COVID-19 pandemic and not RIA recruiters.

"The pandemic has really slowed down the movement of advisors to existing firms to a new firm," he says. "The pandemic has made it difficult to transfer accounts and have meetings.

"There is a big pent up demand for advisers who are ready to make a break, but we are waiting until the vaccine has been distributed.

"This pent-up demand will manifest over the next 18 to 24 months. They'll not all make the break in July, August, or September, but you'll see it happen over time," Clarke says.

The pandemic has changed advisors' circumstances and it's possible they may feel even more energized about leaving, Clarke says.

While the pandemic has been disruptive to all, Pirker sayshe suspects breakaways will do better than they did in the 2008-2009 financial crisis. For instance, many financial firms had difficult reputations during the financial crisis.

A lot of firms had brand damage then and were in the news about being rescued and that was a burden. This hadnt happened this time around.

"I dont think the breakaway model has fundamentally changed. If someone wants to be independent nothing has really changed. Its just the logistics and timing that has changed, he explains.

Clarke says he's not going to let another year pass where he entrusts such a vital sales process to third parties.

The Omaha, Neb.,software company, with $1.4 trillion in administered assets, will hold two events -- including an in-person confab. The express purpose is to pick up the slack after reliance on the recruiting community last year came up short.

The first "Breakaway Boot Camp" will be held,April 7,virtually on Zoom. Advisorscan turn off their camerashouldthey wish to remain anonymous, Clarke says.

The agenda for the April event will feature a keynote presentation from Downtown Josh Brown.

"I'm not being paid, Orion supports us and I support them at conferences and stuff. We love their products and services. They asked me a favor and I said sure," Brown said.

Other A-list speakers include Clarke andShannon Spotswood of RFG Advisory.

Joel Bruckenstein, founder of the T3 Conference, will discuss technology andBrian Hamburger of MarketCounsel Consulting will discussemployment transition, regulatory complianceand business launch.

The second event will be in-person in Omaha, Neb.,June 30. Bothevents are free.

Of course, Orion is now positioned for a much higher yield on recruiting. It wrapped up a merger with Brinker Capital Investments and creating a $44 billion AUM TAMP.

Orion works with more than 2,100 advisory firms and it can gain directly from tuck-in recruits to those firms. See:With Envestnet-Yodlee showing no let-up, Orion Advisor Services and Brinker Capital race to close merger in just three months, a leap toward 'unstoppable,' both organically and inorganically

Orion's boot camps will be a prelude to its more all-purposeAscent 2021 event at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Hotel Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.

"We thought we'd help these advisors by getting out in front of it with options to consider," Clarke says.

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Orion will woo breakaway brokers with two events-- an unusual move for a software firm-- after missing the boat on 2020 recruiting in a tough pandemic...

Apple is offering up to a five-month free trial of Apple Music to new users of the streaming service, in a unique partnership with country music singer Dolly Parton.

The song "5 to 9," a new spin on her hit classic "9 to 5," was played as part of a Super Bowl commercial for Squarespace. Parton posted details of the promotion on her Twitter account.

Users who missed the opportunity to Shazam the commercial can still take advantage of the free trial by following the link included in Parton's tweet.

Apple usually offers up to a three-month free trial of Apple Music to users who haven't subscribed to the service before, so this latest promotion represents one of its better deals. According to Apple, the promotional codes for this offer expire on March 31, 2021.

If after activating the deal you're not convinced, you can cancel your Apple Music subscription without losing your access to the service for the duration of the trial.

Shazam is a free download from the App Store [Direct Link].

(Via 9to5Mac.)

Read more here:
Shazam Dolly Parton and Get Up to Five Free Months of Apple Music - MacRumors

TikTok, the video-sharing social network, drove a lot of interest from consumers last year. It also piqued their interest in Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), according to new research.

The research by Brooklyn, NY-based security advisors Security.org found that interest in VPNs was directly correlated with newsworthy events.

The company measured the amount of web traffic in a day compared to the average web traffic of a week prior to the date and correlated this with significant events during 2020.

VPN technology is used for various reasons. It can be used to create a secure channel to communicate with the workplace protecting sensitive business information, to bypass government restrictions, or to hide activity from Internet Service Providers amongst others.

Almost one in 10 US adult VPN users cite whistleblowing, activism, or bypassing government or organization restrictions as a reason for use of VPN technology.

Security.org's research showed that interest in VPN technology tends to increase significantly whenever there is a newsworthy event that impacts travel, or internet usage, or impacts working from home environments.

On March 22020, the first deaths due to COVID-19 were reported, leading to an increase in VPN interest of 99 percent compared with average web traffic the week before..

On March 24 2020 when the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was announced, there was a 78 percent increase in consumers' VPN interest.

This was due to people looking to secure their at-home networks for the possibility of stay-at-home orders and working from home due to the pandemic.

On August 13, average consumer interest in VPNs increased by 74 percent when President Trump proposed a ban on TikTok in August 2020. Interest also spiked by 34% on September 20th - the day the TikTok ban was said to start.

When internet censorship is threatened, average consumer interest in VPNs increases, and consumers flock to buy routers like the GL.iNet Beryl router which has VPN software built in to the router.

A VPN will allow people to access the internet in countries where restrictions are in place. Countries with levels of internet censorship can bypass firewalls to get to otherwise-restricted content.

As restrictions on free content continue to grow, I think that more and more of us will switch to VPN technology. We can then ensure that we have the freedom to access the content we want to and to communicate as if there were no restrictions at all wherever we happen to live.

The rest is here:
Government censorship threats over TikTok spiked interest in VPNs - ZDNet