TL;DR:
- London-based startup Unitary raises $15 million in Series A funding.
- Unitary utilizes contextual AI to automate content moderation, focusing on NSFW content.
- Expansion into multiple languages and increased daily video classification to 6 million.
- Funding led by Creandum, with participation from Paladin Group Capital and Plural.
- Founded in 2019 by mathematician Sasha Haco and computer vision specialist James Thewlis.
- Unitary’s AI can discern the context of user-generated videos without human intervention.
Main AI News:
Unitary, a dynamic London-based startup specializing in visual content moderation, has successfully raised $15 million in a transformative Series A funding round. This strategic move underscores Unitary’s commitment to harnessing the potential of contextual AI to revolutionize content moderation, ensuring a safer online environment by effectively identifying and mitigating undesirable content, including NSFW materials.
This substantial investment coincides with Unitary’s ambitious expansion into multilingual support, marking a significant milestone in the company’s growth trajectory. Moreover, the company has significantly bolstered its workforce, now boasting a talented team of 41 professionals dedicated to advancing its mission. Notably, Unitary has tripled its capacity to classify daily videos, handling a staggering six million videos each day with unmatched efficiency.
The Series A funding round was spearheaded by Creandum, a prominent player in Stockholm’s investment landscape, and enjoyed the participation of key investors such as Paladin Group Capital and Plural. This robust financial backing signifies a resounding vote of confidence in Unitary’s cutting-edge AI-driven approach to content moderation.
Unitary’s inception in 2019 can be attributed to the visionary collaboration between founders Sasha Haco and James Thewlis. Haco, a distinguished mathematician who contributed to groundbreaking research on the black hole information paradox while pursuing her Ph.D. at Cambridge University, joined forces with Thewlis, an accomplished computer vision specialist with prior experience at Facebook AI Research. Their paths converged during the prestigious Entrepreneur First accelerator program.
Unitary’s groundbreaking technology harnesses the exponential capabilities of AI to discern the context within user-generated videos. This pivotal capability enables the machine to differentiate between content depicting a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and footage used for educational purposes, such as highlighting the perils of such actions. Remarkably, this process unfolds entirely without human intervention.
Sasha Haco, the Co-founder and CEO of Unitary, expressed the company’s overarching vision succinctly: “Our vision is for ethical, empathetic AI to enhance how visual content is experienced online. We’ve always focused on how we might be able to use AI to ensure a safer online experience and keep pace with the ever-expanding landscape of internet content. This funding empowers us to maintain our leadership in video understanding research and fulfill our mission of enhancing the internet.“
Conclusion:
Unitary’s successful Series A funding round highlights the growing importance of AI-powered content moderation in the market. Their ability to scale operations, expand language support, and effectively differentiate content contexts positions them as a frontrunner in creating a safer online experience. As the demand for ethical content moderation solutions rises, Unitary’s advancements underscore its leadership in the field and its potential to reshape the content moderation landscape.
