Start up computer vision software black†ai raised $5.4 million in a Seed+ round.
It was led by Jelix Ventures, with support from Right Click Capital and several investors. The six-year-old company has now raised $8.55 million and will use the money to double its local workforce, expand its industry reach and build its insights-based infrastructure.
black†ai‘s camera software enables users to better understand their physical environment and the complex interactions that take place within it. After launching in 2016 in the food sector, it has now expanded to healthcare, retail and mining to programmatically detect and optimize various spatial behaviors and trends.
The startup’s computer vision software and privacy-first modeling algorithms create highly detailed data sets using non-identifying information, allowing organizations to automatically and immediately improve management and planning for their environmental needs. That means retailers can better optimize their customer experiences, healthcare providers are able to improve care for those in need, and heavy industry can more effectively implement critical safety protocols.
Andrea Gardiner of Jelix said the startup is leveraging a space that has so far only been successfully explored by in-house operators like Amazon’s Go.
†black†ai democratizes automation in a way not seen before. It also addresses an increasingly compelling but difficult to overcome technological problem, the variables of human behavior,” she said.
“Software is gradually automating the world. From security to scalability and reliability, nothing is off limits. black†ai‘s technology is the key infrastructure to support the rapidly growing global demand for smarter environments that respond to real-time events. Their software bridges a need that will fuel future innovations for future generations.”
Gardiner added that CEO Keaton Okkonen, CTO Sebastien Collier, Research Director Karthik Rajgopal, and Chief of Operations Phoebe Collier, in addition to the leadership team’s incredible smarts and deep technical expertise, have unparalleled respect for the ethical and privacy considerations of the space that they are. . in.
“This is evident across the company – through the way they work and how they view customer challenges. They are actively questioning their thinking and challenging them to ensure their software changes the lives of everyone who interacts with it. touch comes improves and respects,” she said.
“This flows through to the companies using their technology, which is inspiring to see. We are excited to be part of the journey.”
Okkonen said black†ai strives to make everyday behavior accessible to software.
“We wanted to create a product that would give users a quick and comprehensive understanding of their environmental needs and challenges, without relying on privacy-invasive technologies such as facial recognition,” he said.
“This has since evolved into understanding human behavior so that organizations can better streamline their operations to the benefit of their people; be it customers, staff or those in their care and communities.
“We see automation as the most powerful tool that people can access, but there is a huge technology gap that prevents us from relying on it in dynamic physical environments; especially where the processes we want to automate are unpredictable.”
Ulric Ferner, director of operations at Right Click Capital, said the company is unlike anyone else they’ve seen worldwide.
“lack†ai has solved the infamous ‘multi-camera’ problem, enabling their customers to understand and apply incredible environmental insights at scale. The buzz and creativity of this team is absolutely world class and they are just getting started.”