Schaffhausen-based Viso, an end-to-end infrastructure platform for building enterprise computer vision applications, today announces that it has raised a €8.7 million seed round led by Accel. Angel investors and notable industry experts, including Mehdi Ghissassi (DeepMind), Mihai Faur (UiPath), Remy Lazarovici (Celonis), James Isilay (Cognism) and Stef van Grieken (Cradle), also participated in the round.
Building and deploying vision-based enterprise applications is complex and expensive. Advances across AI, GPU hardware, and deep learning have made computer vision far more accessible as algorithms become easier to train. But without the requisite technical expertise, many of these models struggle to reach production. Deploying and scaling these models in the field also requires significant infrastructure, which is a major barrier to enterprise adoption despite heavy industry demand.
Gaudenz Boesch, co-CEO and co-Founder of Visio, said: “When we founded Viso in 2018, our core mission was to make disruptive technologies like computer vision widely accessible to all companies, not just those with the resources and expertise to fully utilize it. Since then, the demand for computer vision-based applications has exploded in nearly every industry. However, due to the high cost, complexity and scarcity of technical expertise, many companies still aren’t able to benefit from vision-based applications at scale. That’s why we’ve built an all-in-one infrastructure solution to enable businesses to develop, deploy and scale computer vision applications faster, more successfully and at lower cost. We’re excited to partner with Accel and bring computer vision capabilities to companies across the globe.”
The range of use cases for computer vision is vast, from changing how manufacturers automate quality assessments and reduce cycle times, construction companies track equipment usage, logistics leaders measure shipments and detect damage to their vehicles, and how cities oversee infrastructure – from traffic management to waste collection – to enabling restaurants to reduce waiting times in-store and at drive-throughs. The technology can turn images into information and insights, saving the many billions currently spent on cumbersome, manual inspection processes.
However, while the technology has been around for a number of years, implementation challenges have held back advances. Companies have found it all too easy to end up with cameras and sensors limited to a single application, or hardware that quickly becomes outdated. Others have been daunted by the time and investment needed to make systems operational, or the technical complexity of stitching together different solutions for the various tasks involved in capturing, processing and deploying data.
Andrei Brasoveanu, Partner at Accel, commented: “While various companies have developed point solutions targeting different aspects of the computer vision application lifecycle, there are remarkably few end-to-end infrastructure platforms to unify different tools, models and solutions, particularly for non-technical users. As computer vision continues to penetrate multiple industries, from transport and agriculture through to health, Viso has built a horizontal platform to finally give businesses access to computer vision capabilities at scale. We’re extremely impressed by the early traction Viso has achieved so far and look forward to supporting Nico and Gaudenz on the journey ahead.”
Viso offers a single workspace for businesses to develop, deploy, operate and scale computer vision applications. Using Viso Suite, the end-to-end enterprise vision platform, businesses can build and deploy better vision-based applications in days instead of months by abstracting and automating the entire lifecycle, across data pipelining, configuration, deployment, serving and monitoring.
Founded in Switzerland by Gaudenz Boesch and Nico Klingler in 2018, Viso has been bootstrapped to date and has a globally distributed and remote-first team. Since launching the platform in spring 2022, the company has already achieved impressive momentum and its customers include PwC, A2A, DPD alongside several other Fortune 500 and State-Owned Enterprises. The seed investment will be used to further accelerate hiring and improve the platform’s capabilities.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2023/10/swiss-startup-viso-raises-e8-7-million-to-help-businesses-build-and-deploy-computer-vision-applications/
