Ryan Green, Warren Myers, and Adam Pantanowitz represent a formidable South African tech success story. As the founders of Aura, they’ve developed a revolutionary emergency response platform that’s rapidly expanding across continents, fundamentally changing how security and medical assistance reaches people in distress.
The company’s growing prominence was underscored earlier this year when it secured an additional €13.5 million (R268 million) in Series B funding from Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund and Partech. This significant investment brings Aura’s total funding to €21 million (R416 million), fueling two major strategic initiatives: expansion into the competitive United States market and development of an ambitious global emergency dispatch “clearing house.”
This clearing house concept represents a technological breakthrough in emergency response. Unlike traditional systems constrained by national borders, Aura’s platform will enable coordinated emergency response across countries, ensuring that travelers, international businesses, and global citizens can receive consistent emergency support regardless of location.
The brains behind well-known panic button apps
In a strategic move that demonstrates Aura’s market consolidation, DStv parent company MultiChoice confirmed it had sold its popular panic button app, Namola, to Aura earlier in 2025. This acquisition is particularly noteworthy given MultiChoice’s previous role as lead investor in Aura’s 2021 Series A funding round, which provided R62 million to accelerate the company’s initial international expansion.
The Namola acquisition reveals Aura’s core business model: while Namola serves as the consumer-facing panic button application, Aura provides the sophisticated technological infrastructure that powers it and numerous other security platforms. This B2B approach has proven remarkably effective.
Aura Services operates as a comprehensive technology platform with a clear mission: to make professional security and medical response services more accessible, affordable, and efficient. Though not directly available to consumers, Aura’s technology integrates seamlessly into various free mobile applications throughout South Africa, creating an invisible safety net that millions use without necessarily knowing the underlying technology provider.
The genesis of Aura emerged from practical industry experience. In a revealing interview with The Founder Files Podcast, Green explained that the concept developed while he was working for Myers’ previous security business, which specialized in AI-powered CCTV monitoring. Together, they identified critical inefficiencies in conventional emergency response systems that relied heavily on manual processes.
Traditional armed response typically required victims to make a phone call while under stress, verbally provide detailed information and location data, and hope that control room operators could quickly identify and dispatch the nearest available responders. This process was fraught with potential errors, delays, and miscommunication during high-stress situations.
Recognizing these limitations, Green, Myers, and Pantanowitz began developing Aura around 2015, launching the platform in 2017. Their strategic decision to target other businesses rather than direct consumers proved visionary. As Green noted, one of their most significant challenges was incentivizing service providers to onboard with Aura, positioning it as a revenue opportunity rather than an operational burden.
The platform’s elegant integration capabilities and operational agility ultimately won over more than 2,500 service providers. This widespread adoption led to integration with major insurers, banking institutions, vehicle tracking companies, and even government entities, creating a comprehensive emergency response ecosystem.
System powering panic button apps
Aura’s technological innovation lies in its automation of critical emergency response processes. The platform leverages the ubiquitous GPS connectivity in modern smartphones, transforming these devices into powerful emergency beacons. When a user activates a panic button on any Aura-integrated platform, the system automatically generates an alert with precise location coordinates to a control room.
Control room operators then access an intuitive mapping interface displaying the user’s exact location alongside the real-time positions of all available security officers, paramedics, and other emergency service providers in the vicinity. This visual intelligence enables dispatchers to identify and deploy the closest appropriate responders within seconds, dramatically reducing response times compared to traditional systems.
Aura’s impressive client portfolio includes integration with numerous prominent applications and features, including Discovery Bank Panic Code, FNB GuardMe, the Gauteng Crime Prevention Panic button, Tracker CareGuard, ProtectENS, and Secura. The platform’s versatility extends beyond consumer applications to specialized business needs.
Notably, Aura developed a white-label application specifically for The Courier Guy’s drivers, addressing the growing security concerns faced by delivery personnel who are increasingly targeted by hijackers and robbers. This customization demonstrates Aura’s ability to adapt its technology to specific industry vulnerabilities.
The platform’s technological flexibility is another key strength. Beyond smartphones, Aura can operate on various Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices and can be integrated into existing applications or form part of custom-built apps developed by Aura’s technical team. This adaptability has been crucial for international expansion.
Currently, Aura’s platform enjoys full operational support in Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, and the UK, with many additional countries hosting Aura-onboarded service providers in major metropolitan areas. The company has demonstrated remarkable adaptability to local market needs, such as in the UK where Aura primarily functions as a verification service to reduce false alarm responses by police forces.
Aura Services coverage map
Looking ahead, Aura’s expansion strategy includes planned entries into China, Australia, New Zealand, and several European markets. This global ambition, combined with their innovative cross-border emergency response clearing house, positions Aura as a potential global standard-setter in emergency response technology.
The story of Aura represents more than just another tech startup success. It demonstrates how identifying fundamental inefficiencies in essential services, combined with smart technology implementation and strategic business development, can create solutions that genuinely improve public safety on a global scale. As emergency response becomes increasingly technology-driven, Aura’s platform offers a glimpse into the future of how societies might protect their citizens across traditional boundaries and limitations.