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The Turkish start-up wants to use computer vision and AI to report violations of health and safety rules in the workplace.
Turkish start-up Intenseye, which makes a platform for monitoring workplaces for employee compliance with health and safety regulations, has closed a $25m Series A funding round.
The round was led by Insight Partners, and saw the return of investors Point Nine and Air Street Capital from the company’s $4m seed round in February.
The start-up was founded in 2018 by Sercan Esen and Serhat Cillidag, and now has bases in New York and Istanbul.
Intenseye’s platform uses computer vision and AI to track employee behaviour for violations of safety regulations “without compromising the worker’s anonymity and privacy”, the company says.
The system can be integrated with existing CCTV in workplaces and sends alerts in real time if it detects an issue.
Esen, who is CEO of Intenseye, said the company wants to be “the eyes of what could have been previously unseen”.
“Until now, employee health and safety (EHS) teams have relied upon manual, employee-led procedures to identify safe and unsafe acts happening in the workplace. This involves individuals taking time away from their current roles to walk the shop floor in an attempt to identify unsafe acts as they happen.
“Instead of these manual inspections, Intenseye introduces a new software-driven paradigm for EHS professionals in which their work is augmented by privacy-preserving computer vision running on existing facility cameras that are configured to run 24/7 EHS inspections.”
The start-up said its service is being used by businesses in 40 cities in 15 countries across the US, Europe and Asia, including industrial groups and Fortune 500 companies.
Intenseye added that privacy is important and its system does not store video footage once it has been processed or rely on facial-recognition tech. However, VentureBeat’s Kyle Wiggers writes that AI-powered systems like Intenseye’s “could lead to bias and other harms”.
Teddie Wardi, managing director at Insight Partners, commented: “At Insight, we have a strong track record of investing in innovative, data-driven software companies who harness the power of data and AI to improve physical, real-world outcomes. This is exactly what Sercan and his team at Intenseye are doing.”
In Ireland, start-ups are working to apply computer vision to problems such as e-scooters being ridden on paths.
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