InGrid scores $13.5 million to further develop home security system

BERWYN, Pa.--InGrid Inc., a start-up company that's developing a new self-installed wireless digital home security system, has raised $13.5 million in private equity for further development, the company announced July 13. The system is designed to be sold through broadband telco companies, said Louis Stilp, chief executive officer of InGrid. Stilp is developing back-end systems that will allow InGrid to be tied into a cable company's billing system so the product can be sold, activated and billed through the cable company. "Everything about the product, the web site, the software [is designed to enable] mass market distribution," Stilp said, something he feels security companies have not been good at, considering the current 20 percent market penetration rate. The product was introduced in January (search "InGrid launches home security system" at www.securitysystemsnews.com) and is being tested in the field now. Stilp expects to be generating revenue this fall. The new funds will help the company move from, "a product development organization to an operating company doing deals with partners," said Stilp. One of those partners is Russ Cersosimo, president and chief executive officer of Guardian Protection, a super-regional security company based in Cranberry, Pa. Guardian, which has its own brand-new central station, has signed on to do the monitoring for InGrid. In addition, Cersosimo, personally, is an investor in the company. Is he afraid that InGrid might steal market share from security companies whose products are professionally installed? No, says Cersosimo. The way he looks at it, Stilp is "going after a market that hasn't been successfully captured yet ... and how he plans to go to market through the cable companies makes all the sense in the world." Indeed, Stilp says he's not out to "steal volume from ADT and Brink's; we're going to double the size of the market." Stilp has not yet announced partnerships with any broadband companies. He expects to do so within the next 90 days. InGrid now has 50 employees, but only one of those has a security background: Steve Schueren, a former president of the Pennsylvania Burglar and Fire Alarm Association. For more on this story, including an interview with Schueren, see the September issue of Security Systems News.