Cloud-based video surveillance infrastructure provider Cloudastructure Inc. said today it has secured $28 million in funding through the somewhat unusual route of a Regulation A+ offering.

The company also said it has secured $21 million in exercisable warrants, bringing its total funding offered to $49 million. Cloudastructure has also filed to increase the Reg A+ offering to $75 million.

Cloudastructure Chief Executive Rick Bentley explained to SiliconANGLE that a Reg A+ offering is similar to traditional crowdfunding. It’s often called a “mini IPO” and is a type of offering that allows private companies to raise up to $75 million from members of the public. Like an initial public offering, a Reg A+ allows companies to offer shares to anyone, he said, rather than to accredited investors only.

Asked why Cloudastructure had chosen this relatively unusual method of funding, Bentley said the main benefits are lower costs than a traditional IPO and less burdensome disclosure requirements.

Cloudastructure has developed cloud-based infrastructure for video surveillance systems. Rather than storing their camera footage on site, businesses can simply send it to the cloud. There, they can then take advantage of Cloudastructure’s artificial intelligence technology. The company said its systems leverage machine learning-based computer vision to recognize objects, faces, manufacturing defects and anything else of interest, meaning the software can be applied to quality control, access control and security.

In addition, Bentley said Cloudastructure’s infrastructure can integrate with other sensors to support a range of “internet of things” applications too.

“In particular, we integrate with door access control systems,” he said. “We have a 1.0 door system that works, we brought it to market briefly, but we are working on a newer and better version before taking it back to market. The integration of the two can be very powerful.”

Another benefit of Cloudastructure’s offering is the simplicity and scale it offers, he added. For example, customers with 25 physical business premises can choose between maintaining separate, siloed video surveillance systems for each one, or simply link everything together in the Cloudastructure cloud. Because all data is stored in the cloud, it’s also much more secure, with no risk of loss due to fires, floods or robberies, for example.

Bentley said he believes the cloud-based video surveillance market has huge growth potential. He reckons that as many as 90% of all firms still rely on antiquated video security systems to secure their business premises.

“We founded Cloudastructure because we wanted to provide enterprises with a user-oriented, affordable, and scalable solution that offers advanced AI/ML capabilities while also remaining extremely secure,” he explained.

Cloudastructure reckons that its message is getting across, saying its technology has seen much greater adoption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has resulted in more airports, universities, hospitals and other buildings using Cloudastructure’s thermal detection and face mask detection capabilities to keep ensure people present there are kept safe and secure, the company said. It claims it has grown its sales and business development teams tenfold to handle the growing interest in its platform, though it didn’t provide absolute numbers.

Cloudastructure said it will use today’s funding to expand its sales and marketing teams to grow its revenue organically. It also plans to invest more in research and development in order to add more computer vision smarts to its platform. “This investment not only validates what we’ve built but also enables us to continue pursuing our vision of transitioning all traditional video-surveillance to our cloud-based model,” Bentley said.

Image: Cloudastructure