Kibsi Inc. launched its surveillance platform late last month, with the backing of a host of venture capital firms.
The Irvine-based tech startup, whose AI-supported software helps businesses analyze their video feeds, said it secured $9.3 million in pre-seed and seed funding.
Backers included VC funds GTMfund and Secure Octane as well as VC firms NTTVC, Preface Ventures, Ridge Ventures and Wipro Ventures.
The funding will go to the company’s marketing, expansion and product development initiatives.
Early Customers
VC funding isn’t the only support Kibsi touted with its launch.
The startup also revealed some of its early customers: insulation, roofing and fiberglass composites manufacturer Owens Corning and Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo.
Kibsi’s “intuitive, low-code, drag-and-drop” platform was a selling point for its initial customers, who each sought a convenient way to streamline their process of reviewing video feeds.
Owens Corning requires its engineers to manually review the company’s manufacturing videos every day, according to Director of Engineering Mike Pietro.
Similarly, at Woodland Park Zoo, “tracking animal behavior and interactions requires our professionals to sift through hours of camera footage,” Animal Welfare Scientist Bonnie Baird said in a statement.
Kibsi’s platform will cut the time both Owens Corning and Woodland Park Zoo’s employees currently spend on reviewing footage.
Kibsi will “allow my engineers to focus more on prevention and solution development rather than data processing and analysis,” Pietro said in a statement. Other uses of Kibsi’s platform include measuring footfall traffic and how fast the line moves at a retail store.
“We have a really interesting platform that can solve a lot of different use cases and verticals,” CEO Tolga Tarhan told the Business Journal. “Right now, we’re exploring which verticals are going to be the most receptive and which use cases will be the most impactful for customers.”
Data Privacy
As AI surveillance tech makes headlines, many grow concerned over how it may affect their privacy.
Kibsi addresses this concern on its site, saying that the platform “does not detect the identity or identifying features of people.”
“Additionally, video data is not retained by Kibsi unless explicitly enabled in response to a detected event,” the company said.
Another local startup with an AI-supported surveillance software like Kibsi is Irvine-based Loko AI.
Loko AI’s technology is used by supply chain-related companies to prevent and detect workplace accidents or injuries. Other customers of Loko AI include local police departments and the U.S. Air Force.
As of February, Loko AI has raised over $3 million.
Growing Market
Loko AI and Kibsi are capitalizing on the growing computer vision market, which is expected to reach $41 billion by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of 16%, according to Allied Market Research. The market in 2020 neared $9.5 billion.
According to Tarhan, “analysts expect computer vision to create trillions of dollars of business value globally,” he said in a statement.
“But that value is locked behind complex technology and difficult integrations.”
Kibsi aims to be a convenient means to deploying computer vision tech, with a platform that’s compatible with companies’ existing camera systems and is deployable with “just a few clicks.”
CEO Background
Tarhan has spent over 20 years working in the tech industry.
He began his career as an IT specialist at Irvine Unified School District. Most recently, he held CTO roles at cloud computing company Rackspace Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: RXT) and Onica, which Rackspace acquired in 2019 on undisclosed terms.
Onica is the evolution of Irvine-based cloud startup Sturdy Networks, which Tarhan co-founded and led over a decade ago.
