eNOugh, a London-based safety technology startup with a Bulgarian and Croatian co-founders, has raised $2.7M (€2.32M) in pre-seed funding to bring its AI-powered wearable safety device, the eNO badge, to market. The round was led A*Ventures, co-founded by serial entrepreneur and investor Kevin Hartz, an early backer of Airbnb and Pinterest, with participation from Comma Capital, Karman Ventures, Intuition VC, and several angel investors.
The funding aims to support the launch of the world’s first AI-driven wearable for real-time threat detection and deterrence, designed to address the growing safety crisis in major cities.
A personal attack that sparked a mission
In cities around the world, concerns about personal safety influence everyday decisions, from the routes people choose to the activities they avoid. In the UK, data from the Office for National Statistics shows one in two women and one in five men feel unsafe walking alone after dark.
Four years ago, eNOugh co-founder and CEO Ina Jovicic was attacked by four men while walking home in central London. Despite being in a well-lit area, she was dragged into the street, robbed, and left injured. When police arrived, they told her: “You’re lucky you weren’t stabbed” and “You should never fight back.”
Instead of fear, anger became her catalyst for action. The experience pushed her to investigate why personal safety remains an unsolved global problem, and how technology could close that gap. She later partnered with Gaelic Jara (CTO) and Alex Chalakov (CSO), who joined her in building a device that could have changed the outcome that night.
“This round is fundamental in eNOugh’s journey as it will allow us to launch the product and watch it make a difference in people’s daily life. The stories we hear every day remind us why a product like this must exist. We want to give people the freedom to live without limitations,” shared Jovicic.
A real-time AI device built to identify risk
The eNO badge is designed as a visible, AI-supported safety device aimed at offering a more proactive approach to personal security. It uses a combination of multimodal AI models and custom hardware to assess real-time situations and identify when a user may be at risk.
If the device detects a potential threat, it automatically begins recording through its built-in camera and microphone, contacts an emergency operator who can coordinate assistance, and streams live video and location information to authorities or designated contacts.
Building a consumer-hardware startup is particularly challenging, only around 46% of companies in this space go on to raise a second round of funding. Even so, the team is focused on launching in the UK market in 2026 and continuing to build the momentum needed for future investment.
“What we are doing with our AI is taking it out of the lab and bringing it into everyday life. With the eNO badge, grounded in real-world, multimodal signals, we support people in the moments that actually feel human, like when someone feels unsafe walking home at night,” shared Alex Chalakov, co-founder, CSO.
