Glasgow safety alarm start-up secures £744,000 funding

A Glasgow-based start-up that has developed a personal attack alarm has raised £744,000 to help bring the product to market.

Rebecca Pick with her Personal Guardian attack alarm, set to launch next year. Picture: Contributed

Pick Protection is the brainchild of University of Strathclyde graduate Rebecca Pick, who developed the idea for the Personal Guardian device following an attack on a neighbour.

Having raised £60,000 from an angle investment syndicate last year, the firm has now secured £744,000 in a funding round led by Equity Gap, with other backers including the University of Strathclyde, Gabriel Investment Syndicate, the Scottish Investment Bank and manufacturer Unipart Group.

Pick said that Personal Guardian will be the only monitored personal attack alarm readily available to the consumer market that is capable of sending a police response.

She added: “This is the first time that such a high level of protection will be available at such a reasonable price. Before now, users had to make the choice between good and affordable. The Personal Guardian will tick both boxes.”

Personal Guardian, which will be made in Scotland, can be attached to clothing and when triggered will send an alert to preset contacts via a smartphone. An in-built recording device will allow staff at a monitoring station to decide whether the attack warrants police intervention.

The device is set to go on the market early next year, priced at £119.99, which includes the first 12 months’ monitoring service.

Unipart chairman and chief executive John Neill said: “Unipart is delighted to be supporting a young entrepreneur like Rebecca with the passion and drive to make a difference.”

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