Milestone Systems celebrates 25 years in business: From startup to grown-up

Video software company Milestone Systems celebrated its 25th anniversary recently. The Danish-based company was founded in 1998 by engineers John Blem and Henrik Friborg Jacobsen. The pair started the business from a basement and had 80,000 DKK (roughly €10,000 – 38,000+ AED) in seed funding. Today, Milestone generates an annual turnover of over 1 billion DKK (523 billion AED) and employs more than 1,200 people around the world.

The first version of XProtect, the company’s flagship open-platform video management software, was delivered to a Canadian end user in 2002. Through a network of distributors and resellers, Milestone’s technology has been implemented in more than 500,000 deployments since that time. A wide range of end consumers, including airports, hospitals, and tourist attractions, use the technology. The overwhelming majority of cameras and other devices can be integrated with it.

Modern video software

Starting in 2003, Milestone began to establish its presence beyond its Brøndby headquarters located on the outskirts of Copenhagen. Currently, the company has extended its reach to 26 locations worldwide, which includes offices situated in various countries such as the United States, Singapore, Bulgaria, Mexico, Australia, India, and the United Arab Emirates.

Over the years, Milestone has played an important role in creating modern-day video management software for security and analytics. The company emerged during the transition from analogue to digital cameras. Digitalization allowed Milestone to build a reliable, open platform upon which third-party technology partners can create add-on applications.

XProtect has developed into a data-driven video technology that addresses a variety of needs, from rapidly locating a missing child in a zoo to controlling traffic flows in congested cities, thanks to the innovations of technology partners and Milestone’s product team.

Looking ahead

For Thomas Jensen, Chief Executive of Milestone Systems, the 25th anniversary provides an opportunity to consider how far the company has come – and what the coming decades will bring.

Jensen said “During the early 2000s, together with three or four other companies, we revolutionized the security industry by leading the transformation from analogue to IP (digital) technology.”

He added “Looking ahead, we are preparing to innovate again. We see a future in which data-driven video technology is a game-changer that will help to make society safer and a better place for us all to work and live.”

Milestone’s objective is to advance its efforts in developing technology that is responsible as it expands further. Since 2006, the company has upheld a set of fundamental principles which prioritizes people over technology. In 2009, Milestone included a human rights provision in end user license agreements, and in 2017, it partnered in drafting the Copenhagen Letter, a statement that urges innovative corporations to prioritize people in their technology design and use.