Who owns Flock Safety?

Who founded Flock and who runs it

Flock Safety was founded in 2017 and went through Y Combinator's Summer 2017 batch, according to Y Combinator's company page. Andreessen Horowitz's 2021 investment note names the founders: Garrett Langley, Matt Feury and Paige Todd. Flock is based in Atlanta.

Langley is the founder and CEO. On Y Combinator's page, he writes that home and car break-ins in his metro Atlanta neighborhood, combined with how rarely those crimes get solved, pushed him to start Flock with two former colleagues.

The legal name is Flock Group Inc. Flock's privacy notice identifies it as Flock Group Inc doing business as Flock Safety. Its lawyers used that name in a September 2026 letter to a security researcher.

Semafor has identified David Ulevitch as a Flock board member. According to TechCrunch, Ulevitch led Andreessen Horowitz's investments in Flock.

Y Combinator's Flock Safety page · Flock's privacy notice

When Flock cameras started going up

Flock's first cameras went up in 2017, its first year. Langley wrote on Y Combinator's page that police in Atlanta solved the first crime using Flock devices during the 2017 program.

In a 2021 note, Andreessen Horowitz wrote that homeowners associations were Flock's original customers and still made up over 40% of the business. By then, police agencies accounted for the majority.

Flock's reach grew quickly. In February 2022, the company said its technology was live in over 1,500 cities. In the March 2025 funding announcement, Langley put the count at over 5,000 communities.

How many Flock cameras are there? · How Flock cameras work · Find Flock cameras near you

Is Flock Safety a public company?

No. Flock Safety is privately held. It has no ticker symbol, and you can't buy its shares through a regular brokerage account.

Searches for “Flock stock” mostly turn up pre-IPO marketplace pages, such as Forge Global's, that track private-company funding. Forge says Flock has not officially endorsed a plan to go public.

Flock employees can hold equity through stock options. Inc., citing WIRED, reported that buyout packages offered in September 2026 gave departing employees up to two years after leaving to exercise their options.

The latest ownership news points to a possible sale rather than a stock listing. On September 23, 2026, Semafor reported that Flock had held preliminary talks with outside advisers about selling itself. No decision had been made. Semafor suggested the business could appeal to rivals such as Axon or Motorola Solutions. A Flock spokesperson declined to comment.

Semafor on a possible sale · Our brief on the sale report

Funding rounds and named investors

Flock is funded by venture capital. The table lists rounds we could tie to Flock's announcements or to reporting that cites the company or its investors. Other rounds exist. We left out any we couldn't source.

Existing investors Matrix, Bedrock, Initialized and Meritech joined the 2021 round. The 2022 round added 776 and Spark Capital. Flock's 2025 announcement lists Greenoaks, Bedrock, Meritech, Matrix, Sands Capital, Founders Fund, Kleiner Perkins, Tiger Global and Y Combinator alongside the lead.

Flock's funding totals have climbed with each round. In 2022, the company said it had raised over $380 million. TechCrunch, citing PitchBook, put the total above $950 million in 2025. Fortune reported in August 2026 that Flock told it the figure was $1.2 billion.

None of these sources gives any investor's ownership share in Flock.

Scroll horizontally to compare all columns.

Flock's March 2025 funding announcement · Flock's 2022 Series E announcement

Is Peter Thiel an investor in Flock?

Founders Fund is a Flock investor. Flock's March 2025 funding announcement lists it among the participating firms, and Founders Fund includes Flock Safety in its portfolio. Peter Thiel is a partner at Founders Fund, according to the firm's website.

That's as far as the sources go. We found no source giving the size of the fund's stake, and none showing that Thiel personally invested in Flock or helps run it.

Founders Fund's Flock Safety page

What the name means and what Flock sells

We found no company material describing Flock as an acronym. The closest thing to an official explanation came from Langley on Intercontinental Exchange's Inside the ICE House podcast. He said the name reflects a belief that “individual pursuit of safety isn't good enough” and that people and cities have to work together. Flock's products carry bird names too, including the Falcon plate reader and the Raven audio detector.

Flock is best known for its license plate readers, as TechCrunch put it in 2025. Its 2025 funding announcement lists plate readers, gunshot detection, AI video cameras and Drone as First Responder, and says the drone line followed its purchase of Aerodome.

Flock told Fortune that more than half its new revenue now comes from products other than plate readers. The company also says it owns and maintains the hardware it provides.

Do Flock cameras record audio or video? · Do Flock cameras use facial recognition? · Identify roadside camera hardware

What happened at Flock in 2026

In July 2026, Langley apologized for calling activists terrorists. Gizmodo reported that he had described the DeFlock camera-mapping group as a “terroristic organization” in 2025. Langley told Forbes in July 2026 that his comments were a mistake.

In September 2026, WIRED reported that Flock was offering voluntary buyouts. Inc., citing WIRED, put the workforce at about 1,500 and said Flock described the package internally as its most generous since 2017. A person familiar with the company told WIRED that layoffs would almost certainly follow if too few people took the offer.

September also brought Semafor's sale report and a security incident. Flock told customers that device names and locations had been taken through an exposed map key in late 2025. Our separate guide covers what Flock confirmed and what is still unknown.

Has Flock Safety been hacked? · Why Flock cameras are controversial · Our brief on the buyouts

Related guides

Has Flock Safety been hacked? · What are Flock cameras, and how do they work? · How much do Flock cameras cost? · Why are Flock cameras controversial? · FlockDetour vs DeFlock: choose by what you need to do · All guides · Live camera map · Get the app