Knightscope Chairman and CEO William Santana Li proclaimed this week that his company must be “everywhere” to fulfill its growth mission as he outlined plans for future growth.
The maker of autonomous security robots recently received an Authority to Operate certification from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program.
FedRAMP is a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. Knightscope will eventually be listed on the FedRAMP Marketplace as an approved provider for federal agencies.
It should also allow the company to begin deployment processes for the contract it was awarded by the U.S. Veterans Administration for Knightscope’s first K5 ASR.
In his blog post, Li says Knightscope will be focusing on growth, margin improvements, acquisitions and potentially beginning pre-orders for its K7 robot in 2025.
“Robots will be everywhere. Literally. The time is now, not in some distant future,” Li wrote. “The convergence of numerous technologies maturing at the same time is setting the stage for decades of profound growth.
“From sensors, batteries, computing capabilities, artificial intelligence, data transfer and data storage to the realization of autonomy in real-world applications -- all the key factors are in place,” he says.
Li says Knightscope’s initial portfolio of crime-fighting technologies logged millions of hours in the field and generated more than $30 million in lifetime revenue. He described these efforts as an “arduous, but much needed” large scale proof of concept to prove it was possible to reinvent public safety with new technologies.
Li revealed that the company’s long-term plan is to build a wide range of technologies that include the smallest of devices “that are incognito by nature” to those patrolling entire cities and highways, and everything in between.
“Since criminals and terrorists can be anywhere, then Knightscope must be everywhere to fulfill our mission,” Li wrote.
The negative economic impact of crime is more than $2 million annually, he notes, describing that as a “hidden tax that we as a nation pay in blood, tears and treasure.
“Every American has a fundamental and basic right to live in a safe community in a safe country. We do not have to live this way. We can do better. We must do better.”
Li says the second phase of Knightscope’s strategic plan is on profitable growth, including “scrubbing the entire income statement for a concert of small changes that combined will deliver a step-change in performance, while at the same time making bold investments in the future of the business.”
Li announced he is reassuming operational duties and that is “only the beginning” of changes he’s making to streamline management decision making, focus and performance. He said the company is seeking to cut $1 million to $2 million in annual fixed costs while investing in engineering and manufacturing.
The company is setting a 50% margin target for its blue light towers, e-phones and call boxes, and for ASR the 67% target margin over the life of the machine remains.
Li plans to get there by consolidating purchasing activities; re-engineering the supply chain; reducing assembly hours; maintaining an efficient IT infrastructure; redesigning / rearchitecting systems and sub-systems; reducing maintenance, service and telecommunications costs; and changing material specifications and manufacturing processes.
Given the nature of Knightscope’s Machine-as-a-Service (MaaS) subscription model, “scaling up our operations will also have a positive impact on margins,” he says. “Although there is a lot of work ahead for us, we are still targeting profitability by the end of the year.”
Knightscope has started shipping the fifth generation K5 and all-new K1 Hemisphere and recently commenced selling automated gunshot detection. Knightscope plan to also take pre-orders on its new K7 ASR for private roads and properties in 2025.
Acquisitions are another major goal, he says, noting there are more than 20,000 active startups in Silicon Valley that he could evaluate for acquisitions. He is keeping an eye on the autonomous space for full-sized vehicles.
Li believes the country has entered a “self-driving winter” that he predicted 10 years ago.
He applauds the efforts of innovators in that sector but thinks “numerous folks took the wrong approach to the autonomy problem, and now will suffer the consequences as billions in funding dries up – and almost none of the 200 companies has yet to ship anything meaningful or are generating any significant revenue.”
He feels the right acquisition could accelerate Knightscope’s technology and product development towards a future that brings the K10 ASR into production faster to help autonomously patrol cities and highways.
