FundraiseOct 20, 2026, 13:17 UTC

Allegion Ventures leads Ambient.ai Series C, pushing total funding past $100M

What's the deal? Allegion Ventures has led a Series C round for Ambient.ai, the Redwood City-based agentic physical security company. It is the corporate fund's second investment in the startup after a $20 million stake in 2023, and it takes Ambient's total funding past $100 million. Terms were not disclosed.

What's the endgame? Ambient, founded in 2017 by chief executive officer Shikhar Shrestha and chief technology officer Vikesh Khanna, turns existing cameras and sensors into an always-on security agent. Its platform runs on edge-optimised reasoning vision-language models that perceive and respond to events in real time.

By the numbers: Ambient reported 90% annual recurring revenue growth in fiscal 2026 and said it was cash-flow positive in the first half of the year. The company credits the launch of Ambient Pulsar, its edge-optimised model built for physical security, for the acceleration.

Who's in? Allegion Ventures President Rob Martens, also chief strategy officer at Allegion, will formally join Ambient's board after serving as an observer since 2023. He sits alongside Martin Casado of Andreessen Horowitz, a board member since 2019.

"This follow-on investment underscores our confidence in their technology, their leadership and our increased collaboration," said Allegion President and CEO John H. Stone.

What's the endgame, continued: Shrestha said the capital funds "aggressive investment in R&D" to bring agentic capabilities to physical security. "The next era of enterprise physical security will run on AI agents working alongside experienced operators," he said.

The signal: Investor appetite for AI-enabled physical security is building — Coram AI raised $35 million in June 2026, and platform players such as Verkada have drawn substantial capital. With terms undisclosed, this round reads less as a funding benchmark and more as a strategic endorsement of Ambient's traction.