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SoundThinking
Gunshot detection, alert and analysis solutions
About SoundThinking
SoundThinking, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSTI) is a public safety technology firm that provides data-centric solutions and strategic advisory services to law enforcement and civic leaders. The company's genesis traces back to 1996 when physicist Dr. Robert Showen founded ShotSpotter. Inspired by his work on earthquake epicenter location at the Stanford Research Institute, Dr. Showen applied similar acoustic wave principles to detect and locate gunshots, teaming up with engineers Dr. Robert Calhoun and Jason Dunham to establish the company.
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Ralph Clark joined as President and CEO in 2010, leveraging over 30 years of corporate and financial leadership experience, including roles at IBM, Goldman Sachs, and as CEO of GuardianEdge Technologies. Clark was instrumental in pivoting the company to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model, making the technology more accessible through annual subscriptions instead of large capital purchases. This strategic shift accelerated adoption and led to the company going public in 2017. In April 2023, the company rebranded from ShotSpotter, Inc. to SoundThinking to better reflect its expanded portfolio of public safety solutions.
SoundThinking's business model is primarily subscription-based, generating recurring revenue from contracts with its more than 250 customers, which include municipal law enforcement agencies and universities. The company's offerings are consolidated under the SafetySmart™ Platform, an integrated suite of tools designed to improve public safety outcomes. The platform's flagship product, ShotSpotter®, remains the core acoustic gunshot detection system, which alerts police to gunfire incidents, often in less than 60 seconds. Other key products include CrimeTracer™, a law enforcement search engine with access to over a billion records from various justice systems to generate investigative leads ; CaseBuilder®, a cloud-based system for managing all aspects of a criminal investigation from digital evidence collection to case file creation for prosecutors ; and ResourceRouter™, software that analyzes crime data to direct patrol resources to areas where they can most effectively deter crime.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1995
- Headquarters
- Fremont, United States
- Listing
- IPO 2017
- Sector
- Security
- Power Law
- Thoroughbred$100M+ revenue
Latest news
Press, funding announcements and product moves mentioning SoundThinking.
Investors
From Dealroom's funding and investor records, grouped by the round each investor first entered.
Series A6 investors entered at this stage
- LVLabrador Ventures
RNR Ventures
Band of Angels
City Light Capital
Lauder Partners
Claremont Creek Ventures (CCV)
Series B and later7 investors entered at this stage
Information City
Levensohn Venture Partners
The Westly Group
Norwest Venture Partners
Broidy Capital Management
Norwest Equity Partners (NEP)
Motorola Solutions
Source: Dealroom Talent Intelligence.
Global footprint
team presence
across markets
Market sentiment
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Source: X recent search ranked by engagement (likes + retweets) · Synthesis by Claude · Cached for 1 hour
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