Interview with HALO CEO Fiona Shanley

Alan Soclof: Thank you so much for the time this morning. Do you want to start off by sharing an overview of HALO’s founding story?

Fiona Shanley: Great to be here. HALO was founded in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by long-time body-worn camera industry professionals. They understood there was an opportunity for a better product and offering, particularly for the private sector. Over a short period, we have seen rapid growth. Our first customers came on board in Q2 2020, right after the pandemic started. Since then, we have had great success in the United Kingdom and over the past year, have also seen strong success in the United States. We have built a leading product in our industry with a different business model – a SaaS-first business with very ambitious growth levels that we look to continue over the next several years. 

AS: When did you join HALO, and why are you excited about being the person to lead the Company into this next chapter? 

FS: I joined HALO in the summer of 2023 as CEO. What really excited me at the time – and still now – was the growth opportunity. We are in a phenomenal market at a great time with a world-class product and business model. Higher crime rates, lower police responsiveness, and increased aggression towards public-facing workers across industries from healthcare to retail to transportation, increase the need for our product. Our solution helps businesses protect customers, employees, and property. For me, it was very personally motivating to have an opportunity to come into a company with a mission to deliver technology for a safer world. It is an important mission, and our technology makes a difference. 

AS: You mentioned earlier that a key differentiator with the product is the SaaS platform component that comes with the hardware. Are you able to share more on what makes the product so differentiated? 

FS: Of course. So, we truly have a unified solution. It is hardware meets software meets AI. From a hardware/IoT perspective, our product has better lens quality, camera quality, and battery life. From a software perspective, we have designed the product around an intuitive UX and importantly, our solution works out of the box and gives the consumer true plug-and-play capabilities. We also have an exciting product roadmap, which includes AI capabilities that can recognize an object like a license plate number, a voice, a trigger word, or a face. I also want to emphasize that this is not just a solution for security use cases. Our technology, a camera with an intelligent asset management platform around it, adds value to many businesses. For example, in customer logistics to prove delivery of a product, in service businesses to prove that a quality service was delivered, and various training and compliance use cases. Our technology applies across a range of industries.

AS: After closing the $20M investment from Volition, how do you plan on using the funds to continue to fuel HALO’s growth? 

FS: This growth capital allows us to capture the market opportunity in front of us. From an investment perspective, we see three major themes. First is investing in R&D to keep our product ahead of the market and continue to deliver market-leading capabilities in hardware, software, and  AI & analytics. Second is expanding our go-to-market team. We have a presence in European  and US markets, and we plan on growing our teams from a sales and marketing perspective to capitalize on the market opportunity. Our GTM expansion will also include growing our Partner base in key markets – our GTM partners are vital to our mission. The third theme is expanding into new markets. I talked earlier about the breadth of use cases we can serve. Expanding from traditional law enforcement to private security, retail, healthcare, transportation, and others is a key priority. 

AS: Finally, why did you decide to partner with Volition Capital? 

FS: There are several reasons why Volition was the clear partner for us.  First, was just the speed that Volition was able to learn and understand our industry to start sharing value-add perspectives early on in our conversations. Second, Volition has meaningful experience scaling security companies in the United States. Since we look to the United States as a key growth area for us, having a strong, reputable US growth fund on our side was a key priority. The final point to mention is the clear cultural fit. On the relationship side of things, you got the sense that this would work from the first meetings. Tomy jumping on a plane to Europe immediately after connecting with us showing the positive intent and commitment to the opportunity. 

AS: Thank you for the time Fiona, and we can’t wait to continue to work with the HALO team! 

FS: Cheers Alan! Have a great rest of the day.

-The Volition Press

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