AURA, South Africa’s leading security and medical response marketplace, has appointed Alex Booth as Managing Director in the UK. The appointment of Alex comes after the company’s expansion into the UK in 2021, following success in the South African market.
Alex brings with him a wealth of experience in building and scaling technology-driven businesses in the UK. Booth began his career at digital communications specialist Investis and quickly grew through the ranks, culminating in his appointment as Managing Director and COO. He also serves as a non-executive director across several UK start-ups, as well as Chairman at leading China-focused creative agency, Qumin.
I’m excited to have the opportunity to build on the great foundations laid by AURA in the UK, and see enormous potential for our disruptive tech-enabled solution, “ says Alex.
Having effectively grown several successful businesses in the UK, Alex is well positioned to scale AURA in the UK market”, says Warren Myers, CEO of AURA. Myers believes that the key to successful expansion is an exhaustive understanding of local markets, which can only be achieved through strategic local hires.
Although the crime landscape in the UK is markedly different to that of South Africa, gaps in response to monitored alarms by police in the UK present the perfect opportunity for AURA to demonstrate the power of its network driven by smart technology. “AURA has built a network of ACS-vetted and approved security response partners that can now be instantly dispatched through AURA’s smart technology platform to monitored alarms all over the UK,” Alex says. “Where police were previously not responding to monitored alarms, AURA is getting a response to them in a matter of minutes.”
CCTV remote security monitoring is big business in the UK, with millions of businesses and homes contracting alarm receiving centres to monitor their alarms remotely. The police force in the UK is stretched, with less foothold in comparison to the number of monitored alarms and they are no longer responding to unverified alarm activations. As a result, alarm receiving centres are grappling with obtaining a response to alarm activations for their monitored sites and often have to rely on poor quality CCTV pictures and gut feel before pursuing alarm calls.
This presents a huge opportunity for AURA, says Alex. “We’re using the power of our network to instantly dispatch private security response vehicles to the exact location of alarm activations, providing much-needed verification services in the market.
The security response vehicle confirms the nature of the alarm activation and only escalates to police for backup in the event of an active crime taking place. We’re now able to stop criminals in their tracks and assist the police in responding to real callouts without wasting their resources”.
Alex says there is upside for the alarm receiving centres and installer market too. “We’re providing alarm receiving centres with the ability to diversify their service offering and enabling alarm installers to generate repeat business. AURA’s solution is therefore great news for the UK security industry ecosystem as a whole”.