Two 19-year-old MIT dropouts have raised $2.7 million in seed funding out of Y Combinator to arm police officers with AI.
CEO George Cheng and CTO Dylan Nguyen cofounded Code Four, which is police radio lingo to indicate that a situation is under control. They say their technology reduces paperwork, allowing officers to spend more time in the field.
The startup uses AI to generate reports from bodycam footage that can be used in court or for record-keeping purposes. Code Four can also redact footage and reports for records requests and generate transcriptions and summaries from video interviews and security footage.
“The public safety and the government space is always kind of behind the curve in terms of getting the latest technology, even though these folks are some of the hardest working and most passionate about their mission,” Nguyen told Business Insider.
While the duo knew they wanted to build in an impactful sector, they are aware of the concerns surrounding the use of AI in policing. Cheng said that while Code Four uses AI to generate preliminary drafts of reports, officers review and edit them for accuracy.
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Cheng and Nguyen met during high school on the international science fair circuit, and both ended up at MIT, where they decided to build a company together. Ultimately, they dropped out as freshmen to attend Y Combinator.
They also plan to participate in the second cohort of the Palantir Startup Fellowship next year.
AME Cloud Ventures led Code Four’s seed round, with participation from Pathlight Ventures and Webb Investment Network.
Cheng and Nguyen plan to use the funds to grow their team, which consists of four employees, split between engineering and sales.
Cheng said Code Four works with 25 police departments and makes money via a subscription model, which starts at $30 per officer a month.
Here’s a look at the pitch deck Code Four used to raise its seed funding. The deck has been edited so that it can be shared publicly.
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