The emergency whisperer
In a city like New York, where the wail of sirens weaves into the urban hum alongside taxi horns and street chatter, the emergency response machinery feels both ever-present and unseen. We hear the ambulances and glimpse the flashing lights, but rarely pause to ponder the systems that drive them — or the minds behind those systems. Amir Elichai, founder and CEO of Carbyne, a company transforming emergency communications, is one such mind. In a recent interview with CEO.com, Elichai revealed the instincts and innovations fueling his mission: to ensure that a 911 call triggers not just a response, but one that’s swift, precise, and almost prescient. His story is one of grit, empathy, and an unshakable belief that technology can tame the chaos of crisis.
Elichai began with a story that feels ripped from a screenplay. A decade ago, while strolling along a beach in Israel, he was robbed at knifepoint. Two men, a blade, the stark isolation of danger. He called for help, but the response was slow, fragmented. The police arrived too late, the robbers vanished. “I was frustrated,” he said, the memory still sharp. “There’s got to be a better way.” That frustration wasn’t fleeting; it birthed Carbyne, now a billion-dollar enterprise backed by giants like Founders Fund and Valor Equity Partners, serving emergency systems across 16 countries.
Carbyne’s technology bridges the gap between a desperate call and the help it summons. The 911 system often relies on outdated infrastructure—analog lines and dispatchers taking notes by hand. Carbyne rewrites that narrative. Its cloud-native platform delivers GPS-accurate caller locations, streams live video from the scene, and gathers data like medical records or building schematics in real time. Imagine a dispatcher not just hearing a trembling voice but seeing the fire, the wound, or the threat through the caller’s phone. “It’s about giving the dispatcher superpowers,” Elichai said, a phrase that could sound hyperbolic but lands as urgent when you consider the alternative: a system blind to your whereabouts.
What sets Elichai apart is not just his technical prowess but his near-philosophical grasp of an emergency’s weight. “When you call 911, it’s probably the worst day of your life,” he said. “You’re not calling because you’re having a great day.” This empathy drives Carbyne’s core. The platform doesn’t just chase faster response times; it seeks to ease the terror of those moments, making the system feel human, responsive, almost all-knowing. He shared a case where Carbyne’s video feed enabled a dispatcher to guide a caller through CPR, saving a life before paramedics arrived. It’s a story that could veer into boast, but Elichai delivers it with quiet conviction, as if it’s simply what the technology demands.
His journey to this point has been circuitous. A former officer in Israel’s elite special forces and intelligence corps, Elichai carries the poise of someone who is well-versed in high-stakes choices. His military experience, he said, taught him to “run toward the fire,” a mindset that is as vital in entrepreneurship as it is in combat. After his service, he earned degrees in law and business, although he never practiced law. “Law is like the new BA,” he quipped, echoing a remark from an earlier interview with Alejandro Cremades. It’s a foundation for understanding the world’s rules before reshaping them. His first foray into investment banking shifted his path, but the robbery in Israel turned his gaze to public safety.
Carbyne, initially named Reporty Homeland Security, sprang from that pivot in 2014. Its growth has been meteoric — 360% during the COVID-19 pandemic, Elichai noted, as governments raced to modernize emergency systems. With $128 million in funding, including a $56 million Series C round in 2022, the company’s trajectory reflects the urgency of its mission. Yet scaling at that pace brings its own challenges. Elichai described the slog of persuading governments to adopt new tech, a process he likened to pushing a boulder uphill. “Governments don’t move fast,” he said with a wry edge. “They need to trust you, and trust takes time.”
Trust is a leitmotif in Elichai’s philosophy. He tackled head-on the privacy concerns that Carbyne’s capabilities — accessing locations, cameras, and data — can spark. “We’re not in the business of surveillance,” he said. “We’re in the business of saving lives.” Carbyne’s system is fortified with encryption, restricted access, and caller control, but Elichai doesn’t dodge the skepticism. In an era of eroded tech trust, Carbyne must be beyond reproach. “We have to be transparent,” he said. “People need to know we’re here to help, not to watch.”
This dance between innovation and responsibility, speed and care, defines Elichai’s leadership. He shuns the spotlight, offering answers that are direct, unadorned, tethered to the problem at hand. Asked about his vision for the future, he didn’t paint a utopia free of emergencies. Instead, he spoke of “connected ecosystems,” where emergency services, hospitals, and even autonomous vehicles share data seamlessly. Imagine a crash where the ambulance knows your blood type en route, or a fire where drones map exits in real time. It’s bold yet grounded, already taking shape in Carbyne’s work.
