Umbo Computer Vision, an artificial intelligence startup and provider of autonomous video security products—Light, SmartCloud enterprise management portal and Learning Cameras—has announced it has raised a $6.8 million Series A round, bringing funding to date to $9.6M. This round was led by CDIB Venture Capital Corp, with continued participation by AppWorks Ventures and Mesh Ventures and new investor Substance Capital. The funding will be used for continued development of Light, expansion of the product portfolio, computer vision R&D, and talent acquisition.
“Umbo’s new investment underscores the great potential of autonomous video security systems that are capable of deep learning and computing”, said Shawn Guan, CEO at Umbo. “We are well-positioned to contribute and lead the rising trend for AI to bolster traditional surveillance practices in the security industry.”
Light new features and capabilities
Umbo also announced new features and capabilities for its award-winning product, Light, an autonomous video security AI accessible from desktops and mobile phones. Now, in addition to scene-parsing, Light adds spatial-temporal information for detection of behavioural-related events, making it possible to identify suspicious activity and prevent crimes before they happen. Light can now identify and alert on behaviours such as unauthorised entry, physical violence, loitering, wall-scaling, and people and vehicle tally. Detection of other behavioural events is planned for the future.
Light’s “AI events” system is a simple way to apply highly complex AI models to security systems at an enterprise scale. “The key differentiator for Light,” says Guan, “is that Light actually understands human behaviour, not just lines or boxes on a screen. Unless someone is actually scaling a wall, you won’t hear about it.”
ECS award
Light won the ECS award at NVIDIA GTC and major Security Industry Association awards at ISC West. Umbo was also invited to showcase at CVPR, one of the most prestigious computer vision conferences.
Over the last year, Umbo has added several hundred enterprise customers. The company’s products are currently in use at schools, government facilities, and many commercial sites to protect critical infrastructure and safeguard the public. Umbo has processed over 2 billion images and users have accessed the service over 1.5 million times.
