LiveSafe, a Safety App, Raises $6.5 Million From IAC and Others; Diller Joins Board

LiveSafe, a start-up aiming to create a next-generation safety network for mobile phones, has found a powerful new backer.

The company plans to announce on Tuesday that it has raised $6.5 million in financing in a round led by the Internet conglomerate IAC. Moreover, IAC’s chairman, Barry Diller, will join LiveSafe’s board.

The investment reflects a vote of confidence in LiveSafe, a start-up aimed at bolstering school safety. The company’s service lets university students connect to emergency services from their smartphone without having to call 911.

The company has roots in tragedy: One of its co-founders, Kristina Anderson, was shot many times during the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech. And another co-founder, Shy Pahlevani, was mugged.

Among the problems that LiveSafe’s founders confronted was that students rarely used their phones to make calls, let alone for 911 emergencies. That reluctance to say something after seeing a potentially troubling incident - bullying, a disturbance or worse - is a missed opportunity to prevent a possible catastrophe.

“Most students these days barely call their parents,” Jenny Abramson, the company’s chief executive, said by telephone. “It’s not strange that they don’t want to call safety officials.”

LiveSafe’s app lets users perform one of four actions: report a variety of incidents ranging from a car accident to vandalism; view a map and a list of reported suspicious activity; broadcast their location to family or friends for safety; and call or message 911 or campus police. Students can send pictures or audio recordings as well.

The app lets users report incidents anonymously, Ms. Abramson said, hopefully making people more comfortable about reporting bullying or sexual assault.

Safety officials, meanwhile, can broadcast messages warning users about anything from ice in a parking lot to more serious situations.

LiveSafe is in use at a number of schools, including Georgetown and Virginia Commonwealth University, and has a number of current and former law enforcement officials as advisers.

Among its backers are a number of angel investors as well as CIT GAP Funds, an investment arm of LiveSafe’s home state of Virginia. But Ms. Abramson, through a number of contacts, arranged a meeting with IAC.

The investment will also result in a rare appearance by Mr. Diller on a corporate board unrelated to IAC. To date, he serves as a director only at the Coca-Cola Company and at Graham Holdings, the former owner of The Washington Post.

“We now have the technology and infrastructure to make life safer for people as they go about their daily lives,” Mr. Diller said in a statement. “LiveSafe is an excellent platform for putting safety directly in people’s hands, and has the potential for making individuals and communities far safer than they are today.”

Ms. Abramson declined to comment on the start-up’s finances or its pricing model, saying only that LiveSafe’s fees would depend on individual clients’ implementations.

But she added that she believed the service would take off as more schools regard safety as a selling point as important as academic ranking or cost.

Still, LiveSafe’s executives think bigger opportunities lie ahead, from high schools to sports arenas.

“This is a technology that can make people safer,” Ms. Abramson said.