Hala Systems

John Jaeger is the co-founder and CEO of Hala. Prior to joining Hala, John spent 3 years as a US Department of State official focused on conflict stabilization and countering violent extremism. He worked directly with local partners and multiple USG and ally entities to help create communications networks, develop civilian leadership, inform the populace, strengthen independent voices, increase resilience, and reduce physical, digital, and psycho-social threats. Prior to becoming a diplomat, John spent nearly two decades in multiple executive and technology leadership roles in Silicon Valley and Chicago’s financial industry, where he designed, implemented, and managed mission-critical product and technology initiatives.

Hala has developed Sentry, an end-to-end platform that employs IoT, AI, remote sensing, and distributed ledger technologies to: reduce civilian casualties; document war crimes; enhance emergency response coordination; provide ceasefire monitoring and peacebuilding; and counter disinformation.  The first use of this platform is an early warning system for airstrikes against civilians in Syria. Hala’s Sentry system has already demonstrated the power of forging technologies to save lives. We now aim to scale that initial capability to other parts of the globe and extend its applicability to the world’s most challenging problems. 

There has never been a more appropriate time to democratize access to self-protection and accountability for civilians caught in conflict, by using a neutral, technology-driven solution that is developed with and for civilians.

Globally, two billion people live in countries that are severely affected by fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV). Physical and psycho-social violence against civilians brings injury and death, but also triggers violent extremism, migration, famine, poverty, and geopolitical instability. As a result, conflict and violence cost the global economy US $15 trillion per year, or more than 12 percent  of global GDP.

Hala operates in Syria and Yemen, where the scales of tragedy  are dire: over 500,000 people in Syria and 17,000 in Yemen have been killed,  while millions of people remain at risk of death, injury, and trauma. According to the Violations Documentation Center, airstrikes are the primary cause of civilian deaths in Syria — half of all civilian casualties since 2014. The major barriers in protecting civilians in Syria and Yemen include: a lack of timely warning prior to airstrikes; an inability to forecast violence; and conflicting narratives which confound efforts to ensure justice, hold actors accountable, and facilitate peace and reconciliation.  

Hala created Sentry, a platform for generating credible ground truth in real time. Sentry uses a variety of technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including IoT, AI, remote sensing, and distributed ledger technologies to meet several needs in fragile states, such as: reduce civilian casualties, atrocities, and trauma; provide documentation of war crimes; offer emergency response coordination; provide ceasefire monitoring and peacebuilding; and counter disinformation. Sentry Syria, the first use  of this platform, is an early warning system for airstrikes against civilians. It provides 7-10 minutes of warning for airstrikes to more than 2 million civilians. Sentry gathers data from human observers and acoustic sensors, uses AI to estimate the location of past airstrikes, predicts the location of impending airstrikes, and warns civilians via mobile alerts, remote sirens and lights.  

We have also built another product called Insight, a real-time data visualization and analytics tool which maps the data from Hala’s sensors, human observers, and open source extraction tools. Insight allows us to share data with foreign ministries, UN agencies, and war crime accountability organizations for situational awareness and accountability investigations.  

Sentry’s target population encompasses all civilians in conflict zones, especially besieged communities, IDP camps, schools, hospital patients, medical staff, women, children, and first responders. 

Hala’s understanding of the problem is based on our field experience and direct engagement with civilians and local partners.

Seven members of Hala’s team fled the conflict in Syria: two lived through the siege of Daraya; one is the original architect of our early warning solution and is currently Hala’s Director of Product. 

Hala operates Sentry Syria in partnership with local organizations, including The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), Union of Medical Care & Relief Organizations (UOSSM), and the Syrian Civil Defense (SCD or White Helmets). These partnerships inform our operations, ensuring our warnings reach the most vulnerable. For example, as a result of these partnerships, Hala has spent significant time and resources to  connect Sentry to visible and audible warning mechanisms via a custom-built remote control, because the most vulnerable people are the least likely to afford smartphones or walkie-talkies. They now benefit the most from warnings sent via these devices that were tailored especially for them.

Our work contributes most meaningfully to the first statement of the Prize (Elevating opportunities) as we believe that the right to personal security is second only to basic physiological needs. In most communities that are profoundly affected by violence, the traditional  safety and security providers have often failed due to ineffectiveness, lack of training and resources, corruption, or other circumstances. This results in a loss of agency for the community. Providing accessible means of personal safety and security are chief objectives of our mission. 

Hala was founded by two people who arrived at the same place from  very different paths. Dave Levin was running a social enterprise in Jordan that was building and investing in entrepreneurial solutions to fulfill the basic needs of  conflict-affected communities. These solutions focused on innovative applications of emerging technologies. For instance, he spearheaded an initiative to 3D print low-cost prosthetics for child amputees. However, he wanted to move upstream r to prevent the children from being harmed in the first place. He also believed that technology could be used to improve accountability for war crimes, particularly with the persistent use of chemical weapons in Syria. John Jaeger was working for the US Department of State in Turkey on capacitation of Syrian media activists and citizen journalists. He was frustrated by the lack of technical capability of the  traditional government contractors. He also wanted to do much more to  reduce the devastating effects of indiscriminate violence against civilians. John recognized that the best way to address both challenges was to develop technology with and for civilians to keep their communities safe.

After 20 years of complete ease in the private sector of Silicon Valley and Chicago’s financial industry, I was given the opportunity to work extremely close to the Syrian Civil War. I realized that wildly differing versions of reality were being methodically crafted by different participants in, and witnesses to, the conflict. I saw mountains of evidence of atrocities perpetrated against defenseless civilians trapped between aggressors. I lost friends to the war in every possible way. I witnessed foreign governments willing to act, however marginally, but with few new ideas about how they could make an impact. I could not stand by and do nothing and found no existing organization that specifically used technology in the way I thought would bring  the greatest impact. So, I made such an organization. Ultimately, I realized that innovation wasn’t just something that needed to happen in safe, wealthy nations. Innovation is desperately needed  to serve the most vulnerable people on earth. Conflict affects billions of people, and violence affects everyone, but relatively little has been done by the best and brightest minds in technology to address the root effects of conflict and violence. That has to change. 

I believe my greatest qualification to solve this problem is the willingness to do so. I don’t remotely mean to denigrate the astonishing breadth and depth of skills possessed by the team at Hala to bring multiple technology and operational disciplines expertly to bear, but much of what we do is novel because of where and for whom we do it. I spent 20 years in the private sector learning and unlearning technology, product management, and organizational leadership. I then spent three years as a diplomat that showed me just how little I knew about myself and the rest of the world. Hala is the perfect use of the sum of my experiences across my entire career. It is, more simply, the last job I ever want to have. 

Specifically, my work experience in the private sector has deeply ingrained an understanding of several underlying technology disciplines that underpin much of what we do. From my origins as a software developer to my experiences with information safety and security management, I became professionally familiar with a broad range of technology. My time spent creating real-time visual analysis products for securities traders prepared me for the challenges of providing a compelling and useful user experience with complex data sets as well as designing products to be used in the field. 

Finally, working directly on conflict stabilization and civilian safety for the past  eight years  has allowed me to realize the absolute and unequivocal need for this work to be done. 

Nobody beyond my co-founder and our first employee initially believed in the feasibility of the project. Not the US Department of State, not the Syrian Civil Defence, not investors, not funders. Hala fought extremely hard to survive. My co-founder and I worked without pay, and with limited sleep  because we believed the work had to be done. 

One moment that does stand out was when USAID/OTI told us they would be unable to provide the scaled-up funding that they had promised, and that we believed we had  earned through strong proof of concept. Their decision was based on internal policy obstacles that had nothing to do with our organization or mission. It forced  us to look beyond the traditional government contractor model of adhering to one patron government. Instead, we began to build relationships and engage contractually with multiple donor governments, despite the effort and time cost of doing so. The resilience gained by forging these international relationships, and building an organization that was operationally capable of passing myriad due diligence processes, made our organization stronger in the short-term, and provided significantly greater opportunity in the long term.  

Before the civil war, Syria was not known as a beacon of press freedom, but the early days of peaceful revolution highlighted just how dangerous the Syrian government considered freedom of speech. My team at the US Department of State realized that credible reporting about what was happening on the ground in Syria required local voices that had the capacity to make themselves heard.

Credibility required independence and agency. When designing the program, I ensured that full editorial control over content was fundamentally necessary for success. This naturally resulted in local journalists in Syria holding bad actors and actions to account, including those of the very same government that was providing significant support to those journalistic efforts. 

On more than one occasion, I was required to brief Congress about the program, its aims, and its increasingly consistent criticism of US policy and actions. I never wavered in my commitment to the journalistic ethics we fought so hard to instill. Ultimately, our team was lauded for the success of the program, and encouraged to continue support for the brave work of our local partners. 

The dynamics of traditional warfare are  being disrupted by unprecedented technological change. One result is the increasing distribution and expansion of the means of destruction, yet few are using emerging technologies to democratize access to the means of protection. Hala seeks to play a small part in leveraging the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to transform the nature of warfare in favor of the world’s most vulnerable. 

We are not aware of any other organizations currently utilizing advanced technologies for protecting vulnerable civilians with early warning. Nor do we know of another organization that is securing verifiable information from war zones and transparently sharing it globally in real-time. 

In addition to our use of technology for civilian protection, we have created the most comprehensive picture of the air war over Western Syria that exists outside of a classified environment. With this unique dataset and real-time analytics, Hala is a leading organization that enhances accountability for war crimes in Syria.

Hala expects to significantly improve the lives of vulnerable populations by enhancing and expanding existing projects to high- and low-intensity conflict zones. The outcomes Hala is working towards include: 

• Reduction of civilian casualties by providing life-saving information on all forms of violence in near-real-time, to allow civilians to avoid harm and to empower local stakeholders to respond.

• Mitigation of trauma and toxic stress resulting from the constant threat of violence

• Transformation of emergency response coordination by allowing civilians in need and first responders to communicate more efficiently.

• Increase in accountability for perpetrators of attacks against civilians through a verifiable and immutable record of evidence.

The outputs will include: 

• Trained local observers 

• An early warning system for protection from impending attacks beyond airstrikes

• A data visualization dashboard for stakeholders to monitor ceasefires  and escalations; and respond effectively 

• Reports on potential human rights violations for use by accountability organizations 

The above outputs and outcomes will be achieved through: 1. Field Operations that will include network building -  identifying local partners and community leaders to support project objectives; training infield users - providing technical training  on the use of mobile apps for data collection and reporting. 2. Technology development that will include mobile apps - further developing and modifying applications for data collection and violence reporting;  sensor development - refining data capture components and field-testing sensors; developing open source collection to verify and correlate events; and developing a mechanism for responder alert, coordination, and dispatch assistance. 3. Analytics and reporting that will include engaging key stakeholders  in reporting and distributing detailed reports. 

The above assumptions are based on the testimonials Hala has collected since 2015 and third party M&E conducted on the impact of Sentry in Syria. Analyses have found a net mean reduction in casualties of approximately 20-30 percent, or hundreds of lives saved and thousands of injuries averted in areas where Sentry was active.  “On one occasion, Sentry informed me about two airplanes in the air. We would’ve died if it wasn’t for this warning, because the strike that followed was 200 meters away from me.” - A. Kafranbel, Idlib 

Currently, Hala reaches an estimated 2 million civilians in northwest Syria through the Sentry airstrike early warning system. In addition, 109 individuals at 18 global organizations, including war crime accountability groups, media, and foreign ministries, make use of data and reporting provided through Hala.

Because calculating the future reach of Hala's early warning system in an active war zone is dependent on  confounding factors, it is difficult to say with confidence what the reach may be in one year or five years. Assuming 10-20 percent of those affected by conflict in our target countries (Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Mozambique, Iraq, Niger, and Burkina Faso) are beneficiaries, Sentry could have an impact on the lives of 8-16 million people in 5 years.

For users of our data, Hala anticipates an additional 12 to 30 individuals receiving our reports at two to five additional organizations in the next year, reaching a total of 170 to 260 individuals at 20 to 40 organizations in five  years.

Within the next year, Hala’s goal is to deploy Sentry to at least one or two new conflict zones, and to expand its capabilities to include at least one new context such as disaster emergency response. Its solutions to disasters could be applied in contexts ranging from  public health crises to wildfires.. Within the next five years, Hala aims to have Sentry deployed in five to seven  new countries from the following list: Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Mozambique, Iraq, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Assuming 10-20 percent of those affected by conflict in each country are beneficiaries, Sentry could have an impact on the lives of 8-16 million people. Our strategy for achieving these goals is twofold: partnerships and donor expansion.

Target partnerships include: locally-trusted organizations, such as the White Helmets in Syria, and private implementing organizations  whose programs and solutions complement Hala’s.  In every new geography, we aim to have at least one local partner and one implementing partner. These organizations will strive for innovative solutions and have a keen understanding of the landscape and target impact group. We will expand our customer-base to include INGOs, Tech Innovation Funds, additional conflict and stabilization programs, and additional war crime accountability organizations. 

The biggest barriers Hala faces in achieving its goals in the next one  to five  years are: lack of rapid and adequate funding in the conflict and stabilization sector for scaling tech innovation;  barriers to entry into new conflict zones; and  the cumulative effects of psychological trauma.  

Although the humanitarian sector has recently started to invest in innovation, the percentage remains low. According to Deloitte, less than 2 percent  of humanitarian funding is spent on R&D. Hala is repeatedly  asked to remove funding requests in proposals for the development of its acoustic sensors. Those sensors  are a core component of Sentry and can exponentially improve the scalability of the system. Additionally, there is little appetite for tech solutions in this field.  Only recently have  funding organizations started to  develop a tech strategy for their humanitarian support. For example, USAID just published its first ever digital strategy. 

The barriers to entering new conflict zones are very high. Most donors expect organizations to have significant country experience to qualify.  Major contracts are often awarded to the same big implementing organizations. This discourages Hala from applying to opportunities in new countries even when its technology solutions are suited for the challenges presented. 

Working with traumatized populations and in  active conflict brings risk of contributing to the trauma of those populations, and also sharing in the affects of the suffering. The first presents a significant ethical risk, and the second can cause burnout and violate our duty of care for the team. 

Hala can dramatically reduce the first two risks stated above by investing in research and development and exploring commercial business opportunities. Since inception, Hala has believed that in the pursuit of technical solutions to the most complex problems, it would likely develop commercially viable intellectual property. This is difficult to do, however, with the type of public funding that has thus far driven the development and deployment of that intellectual property. The Elevate Prize would allow Hala to streamline efforts to drive technology, and business research and development. It  could then more effectively respond to emerging challenges across the globe, while also reducing its reliance on the timing of  public funding.. 

Hala is focusing on the psycho-social needs of its users, its customers, and its team. To this end, Hala has already invested in several internal and external initiatives to innovate our organizational practice with regard to the impacts of trauma on our users, customers, and staff. The Elevate Prize would further enable  us to invest in the psychological well-being of human beings who are performing critical work to help others and save communities in danger.. 

We work with local groups to reach vulnerable populations and with international institutions for war crimes accountability: 

Syria Civil Defence (SCD or the White Helmets) is our most important partner in Syria. We work with SCD to train civilians, distribute promotional materials on the early warning system, gather feedback, and connect and maintain early warning devices that are deployed in towns and hospitals. 

Mazaya Center is a vocational center for women in Idlib, and works with Hala on presentations tailored for Syrian women. 

Hala also works with medical organizations in Syria to connect hospitals to Sentry, including:  Union of Medical Care & Relief Organizations (UOSSM), The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), Idlib and Aleppo Health Directorates.

The names of our war crime accountability partners cannot be disclosed at this time. 

Hala’s business model consists of two key components: 

1. Large government contracts for programs that advance the foreign policy objectives of public sector institutions: preventing mass atrocities; documenting evidence of war crimes; empowering civil society organizations with technological tools; and supporting efforts to achieve peace through diplomacy (e.g., implementing ceasefire agreements).

2. Data-as-a-Service (DaaS): Hala offers a full suite of data and analytical products called Insight, via monthly license subscriptions. As we expand geographically and collect and analyze additional data from hard to reach areas, we will expand our DaaS offerings and customer-base. 

We have two types of end-consumers or users of our services. There are tactical users, who include civilians, first responders, and NGOs staff. In the Syria context, they receive warnings of potential airstrikes in order to take mitigating action. They can take cover in underground shelters, evacuate hospitals under attack, or prepare for immediate urban search and rescue. Then there are strategic users, who include diplomats, policymakers, human rights investigators, UN agencies, think tanks, and the media. These users consume information via our web portal, situational reports, analytical reports, etc. They need evidence-based, real-time information in order to bring some transparency to opaque environments. 

Hala is in the process of scaling up across the following growth horizons over the next 5-10 years: 

1) Additional conflict zones: Hala is extending its existing operations to new geographic regions in 2020, and is  slated to launch pilots in other conflict regions (confidential) . Other areas of high priority include Afghanistan, Mozambique, Iraq, Niger, and Burkina Faso.

3) New technology: Hala is expanding its remote sensing platform to enable the detection of other violent events, such as explosions and gunfire. We are  building a proprietary LPWAN designed for our context.  

4) New contexts: Hala is seeking to apply its technology to improve disaster risk reduction and emergency management, strengthen response to disasters in developing countries (e.g., tsunamis in Indonesia) and developed countries (e.g., wildfires in Australia and California).

5) New revenue models: Hala is a social enterprise aiming for financial independence from government funding over the long-term and has already obtained a blue-chip commercial client — one of the world’s most respected media companies. Hala is also in the process of establishing and running commercial pilots with large companies for which Hala’s technology can be adapted to solve business problems. Hala has started by partnering with a large political and economic risk consultancy to develop quantitative forecasting tools and to improve the productivity of information gathering through robotic process automation. Hala sees further opportunities in the industries of risk management, insurance, safety and security, information services, and data and analytics.

Investment: Hala recently closed its Series A. Details are not publicly shareable at this time, but can be furnished on background upon request.

Revenue: Hala currently generates revenue from multiple sources as described in our business model. Details are not publicly shareable at this time, but can be furnished on background upon request.

Hala is seeking US$ 3-4 million per new theater in order to deploy Sentry in new conflict zones. This amount entails product augmentation and new product development like sensors for detection of different types of life threatening events beyond airstrikes, modified mobiles apps for data collection, and new communication mechanisms. This will also include field operations and outreach, with a significant amount of funding subcontracted to a lead local partner.  In addition,  rapid data analytics and reporting will include advanced correlation algorithms and data visualization capabilities.

As a social enterprise that has been functioning for over four years, Hala has an established cost structure that consists of the following components that underpin our life-saving work: 1) Personnel Costs to support our software engineers, data scientists, product managers, research and outreach officers, and program managers 2) Program costs that depend on project and location but can include software and hardware expenses, field outreach and marketing costs, and training expenses and 3) Business Operations Costs that include rent and utilities, legal, HR, finance and accounting, and other administrative expenses. As Hala grows and scales, this cost structure may well change as we expand into new industries and markets. To that end, Hala has developed internal scenario-based short-term and long-term forecasts. These forecasts drive our annual budget decision making process and quantitatively define our long-term strategic thinking.

Beyond financial assistance that can directly impact the previously mentioned barriers, Hala can benefit from the Elevate Prize in the following ways: 

• Technical Assistance: Hala’s breadth of technology is one of its greatest strengths, but we want to amplify those strengths through access to the world’s leading  engineering institution. Furthering our understanding of best practices of technology, innovation, and commercialization are critical to Hala’s long-term sustainability and maximization of impact.

• Exposure:  Hala is not physically headquartered in a global nexus of technology, business, or diplomacy, so therefore values any opportunity for greater exposure, networking, or access to the broader community. MIT Solve’s community of 500+ cross-sector leaders and its media connections at leading publications can be immensely helpful to Hala for funding and partnership opportunities. Hala has learned that one effective strategy for entering new countries is to pursue partnerships with traditional implementing partners that are often awarded large contracts by our target donors. 

• Monitoring & Evaluation: M&E for technology solutions in conflict zones face many challenges. Being able to accurately measure impact is absolutely critical. With support from MIT Solve, we hope to further develop high-quality, results-based research that we can then  promote globally. We believe this will foster the use of technology solutions for civilian protection in conflict, influence the establishment of more organizations like Hala; and bring greater engagement with influential stakeholders, advocates and  policy makers.

MIT Academic:  Partnerships with academic programs within MIT are critical for Hala to improve its monitoring and evaluation, and better understand the ethics of AI in conflict settings. The nature of Hala’s work  with the most vulnerable populations on Earth is extremely sensitive.  It is critical that we examine ethical issues related to our technology’s production and implementation. 

• Ethics and AI

• Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)

• Policy Congress (AI and Human Rights)

• MIT Technology Review

Accountability and Human Rights: These partnerships can improve Hala’s human rights accountability work and lead to the scaling of Sentry across several conflict zones for real-time ceasefire monitoring and documentation of human rights violations. 

• Human Rights Watch

• UN Peacekeeping  

• Human Rights First

Complementary and Horizontal Partners: Complementary partnerships offer a way for Hala to enter new markets and leverage its potential with partner capabilities and networks. 

• Cisco (connectivity for scaling Sentry particularly for emergency response)

• InterSystems Corporation (database management support)

• RedSeal Inc (cyber-security support)

• Vodafone Americas Foundation (support Hala’s women’s initiatives on  access and reach in conflict zones) 

• Emerson Collective (support media and journalism initiatives)

• Alphabet (remote connectivity via the Loon project can improve Sentry’s scalability in hard to reach areas) 

Fundraising - funding from organizations and foundations that share Hala’s values and are willing to support innovative humanitarian initiatives via R&D funding, or provide capacity building for our local partners. 

• Patrick McGovern

• Andan Foundation

• American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact

• Oxford Science Innovation

• Leap Ventures

• Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation