First Due Secures $355M to Advance Public Safety AI Software

First Due, a leading software provider for public safety agencies, has successfully raised $355 million in a new funding round. This significant investment underscores a growing trend of investor confidence in emergency response technology, particularly solutions incorporating artificial intelligence, and highlights the continued emphasis on the government technology (gov tech) sector by private equity firms.

The strategic minority growth investment was led by JMI Equity, with additional participation from TCV and Serent Capital. Serent Capital had previously made a minority investment in First Due in 2021, marking one of its initial ventures into the gov tech space.

Established nine years ago, First Due provides software to a wide range of public safety entities, including fire departments, EMS services, and other agencies. The company currently serves over 3,000 local, state, provincial, and federal agencies across the United States and Canada. Its client roster includes notable names such as the state of Michigan, the city of Charlotte, N.C., the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District in California, and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Like many innovators in the public safety technology domain, First Due leverages artificial intelligence to enhance its product offerings. The company’s comprehensive platform covers critical areas such as pre-incident planning, scheduling, fire inspections, community engagement, training, and command operations.

The newly secured capital is earmarked for several key initiatives: accelerating platform development, expanding customer support, and improving service delivery. First Due also plans to increase its workforce and further integrate AI capabilities into its products as it continues to scale its operations.

Andreas Huber, co-founder and CEO of First Due, emphasized the company’s core mission in a statement. “This new investment strengthens our mission to be the best possible software partner for public safety,” Huber stated. “Building innovative products and serving public safety agencies of all sizes is at the core of our work, and we look forward to growing our existing capabilities to deliver at a much larger scale with JMI’s support.”

This funding round for First Due comes just days after Carbyne, a ten-year-old provider of emergency communications technology, announced a $100 million funding round. These investments reflect a broader perception among investors that gov tech remains a secure and attractive area for capital deployment.

Stewart Lynn, a partner at Serent Capital, noted that state and local governments are consistently upgrading their digital and mobile tools, modernizing their infrastructure by moving away from outdated systems to cloud-based solutions. He further explained that even in an era of federal spending cuts, state budgets often remain robust, and officials are typically hesitant to reduce funding for vital public safety and emergency services.

Moreover, AI is increasingly seen as a crucial tool to augment the work of fire, police, and medical personnel. AI is already being utilized to streamline the sorting and handling of emergency calls and to provide real-time data during critical incidents. Lynn highlighted the unique demands of the sector, stating, “We are seeing a lot of AI because the stakes are so high and the margin of error is so low,” a sentiment that applies not only to public safety but to many essential public agency tasks.