After securing more than £2 million in funding from US-based private investors, Ina Jovicic has created the eNO badge, described as the first wearable AI bodyguard for women. The device, developed with co-founders Gaelic and Alex, is ready for release in partnership with Ask for Angela.
The idea stems from a traumatic incident on October 12, 2021, when four men circled Ina on a well-lit street in Soho. As the group attempted to mug the 28-year-old, she fought back before they dragged her into the road and left her to bleed. After calling 999, Ina says police told her two things: 'you’re lucky you weren’t stabbed' and 'you should never fight back.' During conversations with officers, she says her ordeal was being 'normalised.'
She told Metro: 'The fact they have a lot of cases each day doesn’t mean that it’s normal. It made me so angry and became this internal fuel that I wanted to do something about it.'
How the eNO Badge Works
Three years after founding eNOugh, the eNO badge is now ready for release. 'I clip it on, the badge sits there, it’s monitoring, so it’s watching, hearing and sensing motion,' Ina says.
The badge listens for changes in volume, pitch, emotion in the voice, the structure of the sentence, and for keywords. Phrases like 'give me your wallet' are triggers, while its video can recognise objects like knives. It responds to motion by detecting sudden altitude changes, similar to fall detection software for the elderly. Users can also set up a designated safe word to trigger an emergency.
'So if it sees anything out of ordinary, hears anything that’s a threat, or if you’re getting dragged or pulled, it will vibrate for a second to give you a sign it’s recognised the danger and it’s taking care of you,' Ina added.
Real-Time Police Response
When triggered, the badge shares the user’s live location and a live stream to a human-operated alarm receiving centre, where someone determines if the alert is an emergency. They then escalate it to police who can respond in real time.
'Officers will respond already knowing what the situation is, they have the evidence and they know your name,' she adds. 'The operator can also speak through the badge to the criminal to de-escalate the situation.' Ina worked with criminal psychologists who believed offenders would be more likely to 'abort' the attack this way. All footage stored on an encrypted cloud can only be accessed by law enforcement.
Pricing and Availability
The eNO badge is priced at £169 upfront, followed by a £14.99 monthly subscription fee. The waitlist is open now, with the first bodyguards released at the end of October. There are also plans to make it more affordable for vulnerable people.
ENOugh is working with universities to offer the badge at a discounted rate. Of the 739,000 women who were sexually assaulted (including attempts) from 2024 to 2025, ONS figures show a higher proportion were full-time students. ENOugh also hopes to speak with the NHS to offer the badge to female staffers who finish healthcare shifts at late hours.
Liv Nevill has joined forces with eNO to promote the device. She was threatened by a man earlier this year. After being followed, she sought safety in a Co-op, but the man waited outside. She told staff she was being followed, but claims he then came into the supermarket, threatening her with sexual violence. She told Metro: 'All I could think was why have I been the one that’s chosen and targeted. I ran to the back of the shop, but I could see he was looking for me between the aisles, shouting “I need to find her”.' Liv says it’s an 'honour' to be working with a company trying to keep women safe.
AI Concerns and Expert Views
James Vincent, director of Digital Resistance, which aims to protect people from AI threats, says he sees the 'potential benefit' of this device. 'If someone is genuinely in danger and technology can recognise that situation, intervene and get them help more quickly, then that’s a very interesting use of AI,' he tells Metro. But James worries there’s 'something slightly dystopian' about wearing what he calls an 'Alexa-style' device. He wants to ensure that if we’re going to trust AI with something as serious as personal safety, the threshold for transparency, testing and accuracy is incredibly high.
Ina agrees: 'We have to be insanely cautious, but in this case AI is being used for good to do something we couldn’t as humans. We found that we’ve always relied on humans in danger to be able to act, but these are unrealistic expectations when you’re in the highest fight-or-flight panic mode.' James adds that if this technology can help protect women 'that’s fantastic' but he doesn’t want tech to distract us from tackling the wider societal issues that make such technology necessary. 'AI should support human safety, not become an excuse to avoid addressing the problems that threaten it,' he adds.
Ina concludes: 'We want to keep everyone’s daughters, partners and loved ones safe.'
