National Monitoring Center (NMC), a third-party monitoring company in the U.S. with monitoring centers in Lake Forest, Calif., and Irving, Texas, announced the launch of a new global monitoring company following the merging of four monitoring companies with the backing of global private equity firm The Riverside Company.

The newly formed company, Netwatch Group, includes monitoring companies NMC (U.S.), Netwatch (Ireland), CalAtlantic (U.S.) and Onwatch Multifire (UK) and reported it would will focus on: 

• leading the consolidation of the proactive visual monitoring industry starting with  the combination of Netwatch, Onwatch Multifire and CalAtlantic; and
• bringing the innovations and reliability of the visual prevention capabilities perfected by Netwatch over the last 15 years  to thousands of the NMC end-users through their valued dealer partners in the U.S. under the NMC brand. 

The new group is protecting hundreds of thousands of sites in the U.S., UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa in a wide variety of segments including government, transportation, critical infrastructure (utilities, communications, energy), manufacturing, education, stadiums, finance, retail and residential. 

Woodie Andrawos will continue to lead the NMC management team as managing director and president. Andrawos and the NMC management team will be focused on continuing to deliver the high quality alarm monitoring services that the NMC dealers and their subscribers are accustomed to, in addition to the new remote proactive visual monitoring capabilities, the company described in a press release.

Michael Schubert, CEO and co-founder of NMC, will be retiring after 38 years in the security industry. Schubert said, “Today, I’m retiring from the security industry after 38 years — doing what I always loved and making so many good friends over these years. I know and am confident this deal will be excellent for our employees, dealers, their subscribers, and the industry in general with tremendous benefits for all. I look forward to seeing the company take things to the next level in monitoring for our dealers and their subscribers, with the same standard of excellence and passion that we have had over all these years, while creating a new global monitoring player in the security industry, Netwatch Group.”

Riverside has a track record of international technology investments, having completed more than 85 in its history. The deal is led by UK and Ireland partner Dr. Martin Scott, who, alongside Principal Laura Dillon, will sit on the board of the new group.

The merger of the four companies was led by Industry visionary, Samir Samhouri, former chairman and CEO of Xtralis, a major leader in the early detection safety and security technologies. Xtralis was sold to a Fortune 100 company in 2016. Samhouri has been appointed chairman of Netwatch Group and will be one of the company’s investors. 

David Walsh, CEO, will lead Netwatch Group as it pursues an ambitious growth strategy. Walsh, who co-founded Netwatch, introduced proactive visual monitoring and innovations such as managed services. The company invests heavily in R&D and developed proprietary technology to deliver its industry leading services. 

Netwatch Group will be headquartered in Carlow, Ireland. Its North American headquarters will be located in Lake Forest, Calif., with satellite offices in Boston, New Jersey, Dallas, Houston, and Chicago. The company’s UK headquarters will be in East Sussex, United Kingdom. The company will immediately have a network of six advanced Global Monitoring Centers, connected by the Netwatch proprietary CRATOS technology platform.

 “Today we are creating a global leader in proactive monitoring services. There is increased demand for visual monitoring from enterprise customers, driven by the continuing evolution of technology and advances such as AI, deep learning, 5G and IoT,” said David Walsh, CEO. “The combined strengths of NMC, CalAtlantic, Onwatch Multifire and Netwatch — all leaders in their respective geographies, means that we can immediately deliver industry leading proprietary technologies in proactive visual monitoring to hundreds of thousands of clients who rely on us to protect lives, assets and business operations.”  

Walsh continued: “Netwatch Group will specialize in providing risk management, business continuity, security and life safety services to clients across the world. We create a fearless environment for our customers and we will continue to innovate in pursuit of this quest. We have ambitious growth plans to expand our global footprint which we will achieve through organic growth and further acquisitions.”  

Walsh added, “I am very pleased to have the benefit of Samir Samhouri’s experience and counsel and to be working with an unrivalled team of industry professionals including Woodie Andrawos as we bring the benefits of Netwatch Group to more organizations across the globe.”  

Woodie Andrawos, managing director and president of NMC, said, “I am excited to have NMC take the leading role of bringing the benefits of remote proactive video monitoring services to our valued dealers and their subscribers. Through the advanced visual technology and the CRATOS central station receiving software, proprietary to Netwatch developed over a 15 year period, NMC will be in a unique position to empower our dealers to move in the arena of remote early detection and crime prevention visual monitoring with the high RMR benefits in addition to all the intrusion and fire monitoring services that has made NMC’s name synonymous with quality and excellence over the past 17 years.” 

Andrawos  continued, “We recognize that video monitoring is not just a trend but is the future and where our dealers will see growth. We’ve taken the initiative to empower our dealers in that direction. We are also pleased to be partnering with such leading quality companies and industry leaders and visionaries including Samir Samhouri and David Walsh.”

To learn more about Netwatch Group please visit www.netwatchgroup.com.