Vizgard Wins £1.5 Million to Enhance AI Solutions for Defense & Security

Vizgard has secured £1.5 million in funding to accelerate the growth of its AI-driven solutions for the defense and public safety sectors. 

The investment, led by Sure Valley Ventures (SVV) with support from Midwich Ignite and Focal, will be used to expand Vizgard’s engineering and business development teams, strengthen international distribution efforts, and further develop its FortifAI platform.

The company’s FortifAI platform leverages commercially available, low-energy processors to enhance a wide array of systems, including security cameras, counter-drone solutions, and autonomous vehicles. It delivers precise, real-time threat detection and automated camera adjustments, significantly reducing the burden on operators. This new funding will help accelerate Vizgard’s mission to address key deficiencies in camera-based defense and public safety infrastructure.

By integrating proven computer vision technology with advanced Deep Learning techniques, FortifAI ensures strong performance in real-world conditions. Additionally, the platform incorporates Vizgard’s proprietary Behaviour Risk Index algorithm, which calculates human-readable threat scores while automatically safeguarding privacy by blurring faces. This innovation allows for the timely identification of complex safety incidents, such as detecting and responding to vulnerable individuals who are in danger or at risk of self-harm.

Alex Kehoe, Founder of Vizgard, said, “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.”

Brian Kinane, Founding Partner, Sure Valley Ventures, added, “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.”