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Skyalert celebrates 10 years with the goal of covering 98% of the areas of Mexico where there is seismic activity. The Mexican company of seismic alert, which in recent years experienced a battle in court with the government of Mexico City, wants to continue its expansion both in the national territory and in South American countries.
Skyalert is a technology company dedicated to offering an earthquake warning service through an application (app) to smartphones or of devices for companies. Founded in 2011 by Alejandro Cantú, Skyalert has been a witness and participant in events that had an impact on the lives of many people, especially in CDMX.
Perhaps the most important have been the earthquakes that were experienced in the capital and in the southeast of the country in September 2017. For the company, these earthquakes, in which 369 people died, represented an opportunity to demonstrate its usefulness and relevance. They also allowed it to access financing to extend its sensor network, reaching 124 in the main seismic zones of Mexico and in the states of the West Coast of the United States.
Lawsuit against CDMX
In addition to the inconvenience caused by some errors in the issuance of its seismic alerts, Álvaro Velasco, executive director of Skyalert, mentions the legal dispute that the company had with the government of Mexico City as another of the 10 milestones. years of the company.
In 2019, the administration of Claudia Sheinbaum, who had just assumed the position of Head of Government in December 2018, included articles 76, 80 and 83 in the Regulations of the General Law on Risk Prevention and Civil Protection, with which only the civil association Centro de Instrumentation y Registro Seísmico could issue seismic alerts.
Velasco recalls that, a few weeks ago, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) agreed with the company against the government of the capital, that private companies can also participate in disaster prevention. Before, a city judge had granted him the protection that Skyalert had requested against the articles of the Regulation of the General Law on Risk Prevention and Civil Protection.
Skyalert Facts
- 725 earthquakes alerted since 2011
- 80% coverage in areas with seismic activity in Mexico
- Between 70 and 73 million people live in the areas where SkyAlert offers coverage.
- 124 seismic sensors in the states with the highest seismic risk: from Jalisco to Chiapas, in the Pacific, as well as Mexico City, Morelos, Puebla, the State of Mexico and Veracruz.
- 10 million downloads and 3.5 active users per month has Skyalert
Planes
In 2022, Skyalert plans extend your sensor network to Nayarit, Sinaloa, Sonora, Baja California and Baja California Sur to reach 98% of the country’s seismic zones. It also aims to modernize its business detectors with a smaller and faster device that is more accessible for small and medium businesses, SMEs.
But perhaps the most ambitious challenge for Skyalert on its tenth anniversary is to warn of the risks involved in any natural phenomenon, be it an earthquake or a hurricane, first in Mexico and the United States and then in Chile, Colombia and Peru, which will require a strong investment of the company.
Skyalert has 450,000 people subscribed to the premium version of the application, with which it generates half of its income and the other half comes from the service to companies through the sale of alerting devices. This is the vertical in which the company wants to focus more both on its geographical expansion and on the natural phenomena it can alert to.
Uneven floor
Despite Skyalert’s strategy to invest in updating its products and in its expansion process, Álvaro Velasco sees an uneven floor in the distribution of financing for startups that benefits above all financial technology companies and leaves aside another type of companies.
Five o’clock startups Unicorn that reached a value of more than 1 billion dollars in 2020 and 2021, four are fintech companies. For Velasco, this is mainly due to the fact that the rules of the funds of venture capital They are very beneficial for companies that have just been founded and that are looking for high growth.
“Those of us that have already been in business for several years, that are more consolidated, become less attractive because they believe that we are not going to obtain such growth. Personally, I would prefer a company that has survived it all, ”he said.
rodrigo.riquelme@eleconomista.mx
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