Eyewitness Surveillance receives $25m line of credit

HANOVER, Md.—Eyewitness Surveillance, a provider of video analytics and monitored video surveillance based here, received a $25 million five-year revolving line of credit from Capital One, the bank announced in mid-September. At the same time, Eyewitness received a separate investment from private equity firm LLR Partners, based in Philadelphia.

“The debt financing [from Capital One] is to help fund the future growth as we invest in our current customers as they expand their operations and as we enter new geographies with new customers,” Rush McCloy, CEO of Eyewitness Surveillance, told Security Systems News.

“The equity financing gives us the flexibility to invest in the infrastructure necessary to bolster that here and support the growth,” McCloy said. He declined to release the financial details of LLR's investment.

Eyewitness has more than 300 customers, and about 70 employees. McCloy said the company is looking to expand more in the Southwest and on the West Coast. The company has grown about 30 percent year-over-year, he said.

The company's accounts are primarily in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, but also has customers in the Southeast, Southwest and mid-West, McCloy said. “For us to invest in a geography, it's not just selling into the market but we have to hire our technicians … to make sure that we can properly manage both the installation and service process.”

Eyewitness operates its own monitoring center here, though it is different from a traditional security industry central station. “When the analytics trigger an event for us, our remote surveillance officers watch the video to determine whether there is nefarious behavior, depending on the protocols … we will then speak to the subject while simultaneously dispatching police [if the situation warrants],” McCloy said.

The company focuses “heavily” on the automotive and metal recycling verticals, according to McCloy, but is looking into the fixed industrial vertical. “We believe, the key to our success is having a deep knowledge of our end markets so we can better train our surveillance officers,” he said.

Eyewitness received $15 million in funding in September 2015. “The funding last year really enabled us to grow and invest in the deepening of our products and services to our existing [customers] in the same fashion that we anticipate the new financing to support,” he said.

The company grows organically, though McCloy said the company would consider an acquisition, “Particularly if it enables us to enhance our current services to our existing customers.” The company has not completed any acquisitions to date.

McCloy said that Eyewitness' surveillance systems can be used both for security as well as operations and business intelligence. The company is looking at new products, such as a new suite of reporting services, according to McCloy.