There have been a couple of setbacks at EhEye, the Fredericton company that has built a gun detection software to enhance public safety.

After a significant loan fell through, the company is hustling to raise $200,000 through a crowdfunding campaign.

“We’ve got 21 months in innovating and are in the right exact place we need to be in to protect people and we cannot get the support we need,” said James Stewart, the CEO of EhEye.

EhEye’s software is able to detect people and weapons through visual recognition technology and alert security teams to potential threats, saving valuable time during a crisis.

In its second round of funding, EhEye raised $800,000 in investments from organizations like the National Research Council. However, in order to fully access the $800,000, the company needs to drum up $200,000 in equity financing.

“The equity funding for us is difficult because we’re a different type of innovation,” said Stewart.

“The investors want to know how are you going to make or save people money, and public safety is different. How do you quantify public safety? The province invested $53 million into innovation but because that follows equity, a company like ours cannot access it.”

When it comes to product validation, EhEye has piqued the interest of globally recognized security brands and was selected as one of six startups to travel to Vienna, Austria for a tech startup conference. Recently EhEye set up a booth at a trade show in Toronto and attracted quite a crowd, according to Stewart.

“People were blown away in Toronto, they said our tech was like something out of a movie,” said Stewart. “We see the validation and the pull we’re having in different public safety organizations. The organizations that are looking at us are household brands, they are recognizing the need.”

Stewart says he is having trouble catching the eyes of investors in Atlantic Canada.

“I think our problem is we’re in a location that doesn’t have a public safety problem. We’re knocking on everyone's door but everybody says we're not going in unless you have equity investors and we’re getting there but we’ve kind of had the wheels blown off the bus with the bridge loan collapse.”

You can donate to EhEye’s GoFundMe page here.