The personal safety app, WalkSafe, has just raised €360k from Fearless Adventures amidst soaring downloads.
The London-based app is innovative and free to download. It exists with the ambition to help make the world a better place and has massively grown following increased concerns over the safety of people walking home at night, especially for women.
Founded by Emma Kay, a young female entrepreneur and daughter of a police officer, WalkSafe has a suite of tools to protect people – including, regularly updated police crime data to show users where the recent crime hotspots are, so they can pick safe routes to walk home. The app allows users to alert contacts if they’re feeling unsafe whilst walking and has now been downloaded by over half a million people.
Emma Kay explained: “I call WalkSafe the ‘app that shouldn’t have to exist’ as no woman should have to live in fear of violence or the threat of it when they walk from A to B. But, like countless women, I’ve experienced being groped, flashed at, and harassed with no provocation. Thankfully, I have been able to turn that fear and danger into something useful. So I’m proud that our technology empowers women, and has quickly become the most popular trusted safety app.”
WalkSafe is the only safety app to use official police crimes statistics with a unique live map so users can see the most recent crimes wherever they are, empowering them to avoid crime hotspots if they can. Other features include HomeSafe and ‘Tap Safe’ which has been activated over 20,000 times in the last six months, alerting contacts if the user feels unsafe and a dead switch giving their exact last known location if their phone is deactivated.
The new funding from Fearless Adventures will not only help the app grow and scale by injecting capital, but also comes alongside digital marketing support and talent sourcing. Though downloads are already growing rapidly, as Walksafe prepares a new version of its app, it will benefit from Fearless Adventures’ re-launch campaign. This will drive app installations and user acquisition at scale with key components including paid social, influencer partnerships, SEO, UX optimisation, and business intelligence.
Ultimately, it will make sure more people get home safe.
Rachel McDonald, Fearless Adventures’ Managing Director, said: “As a team at Fearless Adventures, we fundamentally believe in Emma’s vision for WalkSafe, that technology combined with police crime data can genuinely help save lives. The new tech already has national attention and we see this app becoming the leading personal safety service. Emma’s commitment and passion are infectious and made it a very easy investment decision for us. We’re excited to offer them access to high-quality talent and marketing expertise to really scale their business.”
