US public safety firm buys Israel’s AI emergency response startup Carbyne for $625m

Israeli-founded startup Carbyne, the developer of an AI-based emergency communication response software system, is being snapped up by US public safety tech firm Axon in a deal worth $625 million, Axon said in a statement late Tuesday.

Merging location services, live video chat, incident mapping, and AI-powered communication tools into a single dashboard, Carbyne’s cloud-based platform feeds real-time information to law enforcement agencies and 911 call responders.

“Every year, more than 240 million 911 calls are made in the US, and in too many cases, vital information is lost between the call and the response,” said Axon founder and CEO Rick Smith. “By uniting Axon’s 30-year legacy of innovation with Carbyne’s cloud-based call management platform, we’re closing that gap, giving call takers and dispatchers instant visibility and connecting them directly to officers in the field.”

Nasdaq-traded Axon, formerly known as Taser, has a market value of almost $57 billion and is a major provider of police body cameras, sensors, and other public safety devices, including fixed and in-car cameras, drones, and robotics.

Carbyne was founded in 2015 by CEO Amir Elichai, CTO Alex Dizengoff, R&D manager Yony Yatsun, and shareholder Lital Leshem. The startup’s cloud-native AI platform is used by emergency communications centers to receive, route, and manage incoming emergency calls, and connect responders with real-time data, live video, multilingual transcription and translation tools, to cut response times and ultimately save lives.

“Carbyne was created to modernize how help arrives—by giving emergency professionals the clarity, resilience, and confidence they need in critical moments,” said Elichai. “Joining Axon allows us to scale that mission globally and integrate more deeply into the broader public safety ecosystem. Together, we’ll help agencies save time, reduce uncertainty, and improve outcomes for the people and communities they serve.”

Carbyne said its life-saving emergency response solutions are deployed at almost 300 sites globally, serving law enforcement agencies in over 23 US states, and protecting more than 250 million people worldwide. The sites include emergency call centers, government agencies, and public safety operators across the US, Mexico, and Israel.

In February 2023, United Hatzalah of Israel emergency responders, who were sent to Turkey following a deadly earthquake, deployed Carbyne’s platform to share real-time location data, video, and imagery with remote medical teams in Israel who helped advise rescuers on life-saving procedures.

Carbyne employs 230 workers globally, out of which 80 are based at its R&D center in Israel.

To date, Carbyne has raised about $200 million in financing from investors. In July this year, the startup nabbed $100 million in fresh funds with participation from investors including Axon, AT&T Ventures, Rokos Capital Management, Valor Equity Partners Cox Enterprises, Hanaco Growth Fund, and Silicon Valley Bank.