The United Kingdom’s Pimloc has successfully completed a seed funding round, securing £1.4 million (approximately $1.8 million) with Amadeus Capital Partners taking the lead. The investment also included participation from existing investor Speedinvest, alongside contributions from other undisclosed investors.

Established in 2016, the computer vision company initially introduced Pholio, an AI-driven photo classification service in 2017. This service was designed to empower smartphone users with greater control over their digital photos, offering an alternative to sharing data with major cloud providers such as Google.

The company has since shifted its focus, repositioning Pholio as a specialized platform for searching and discovering extensive image and video collections, including live feeds utilized by institutions like art galleries and broadcasting organizations. Simultaneously, Pimloc launched Secure Redact, a second product leveraging its advanced deep learning capabilities. Secure Redact delivers privacy-centric content moderation capabilities, allowing users to identify and obscure sensitive information within visual content.

A practical application of this technology, as highlighted by the company, involves law enforcement agencies anonymizing body camera recordings for use in training materials or for presentation as evidence.

“Pimloc has extensive experience working with a wide variety of image and video content, assisting organizations with classification, moderation, and data protection requirements across sectors like image libraries, art galleries, broadcasting, and CCTV surveillance,” explains CEO Simon Randall in a statement to TechCrunch.

“Our work in visual privacy revealed a significant need in the market for solutions that enable businesses and governmental bodies to effectively manage visual data protection on a large scale, particularly concerning security footage. Pimloc has dedicated the past couple of years to developing the necessary expertise and product offerings, and has now concentrated its efforts entirely on this core mission.”

Secure Redact operates through a two-stage process. Initially, an automated system identifies potentially sensitive data, such as faces, heads, and bodies, within video content. Following this, a suite of “intelligent tools” allows users to carefully review and refine the automated results.

“All identified elements and their tracking are fully auditable and can be modified by users before redaction is finalized,” Randall clarifies, further noting that “personal data encompasses more than just facial features, extending to objects and scene details like identification cards, tattoos, and even information displayed on phone or laptop screens captured in body-worn camera footage.”

The University of Bristol is currently utilizing the redaction tool as part of a research initiative. Led by Dr. Dima Damen, an associate professor in computer vision, a research group is collaborating with an international consortium of 12 universities to build a substantial dataset of egocentric vision data, requiring anonymization before public release for academic and open-source purposes.

Regarding legal compliance, Randall states that Pimloc provides a variety of data processing options to accommodate differing data handling regulations. “Some clients prefer Pimloc to function as a data processor, utilizing the Secure Redact SaaS solution – managing their accounts, uploading footage, and reviewing/editing/updating detections before redaction and use. Others choose to run the Secure Redact system on their own servers, assuming both data controller and processor responsibilities,” he explains.

“We currently have over 100 users subscribed to the SaaS service, representing sectors such as mobility, entertainment, insurance, healthcare, and security. We are also actively establishing numerous on-premise installations,” he adds.

When asked about the sectors expected to drive the most growth for the platform in the coming years, Randall identified the following: smart cities and mobility platforms (driven by safety and analytics needs from councils, retailers, and autonomous vehicle developers); the insurance industry, which is “increasingly capturing and utilizing visual data for claims processing and risk assessment” and therefore “seeking responsible data management and processing systems”; video and telehealth, as traditional consultations transition to video, creating demand for visual diagnostics; and law enforcement, where security objectives must be supported by “privacy by design” principles (particularly for agencies subject to European data protection laws).

Concerning the competitive landscape, he observes a growing trend of startups concentrating on specialized AI applications, believing this presents an opportunity to develop comprehensive end-to-end solutions that are less easily replicated by larger technology companies.

Specifically for Pimloc, he contends that the company possesses a competitive advantage within its security-focused niche, stemming from its “deep expertise” and specialized domain knowledge.

“While creating a basic product has a low entry barrier, developing a service robust enough for large-scale use with real-world footage presents significant technical challenges,” he argues, adding: “The generalist services offered by larger tech companies do not align with the domain-specific capabilities of Pimloc and Secure Redact. AI systems trained on lifestyle, celebrity, or general datasets often perform inadequately when applied to the complexities of security footage.”

Alex van Someren, MD of Amadeus Capital Partners, commented on the seed funding, stating: “As video becomes an increasingly important data source for mobility, insurance, commerce, and smart cities, and as our reliance on video for remote work grows, there is a critical need for privacy by design and scalable solutions. We are very enthusiastic about the potential of Pimloc’s products to address this challenge.”

“Consumers worldwide are understandably concerned about how organizations are handling the increasing volume of visual data being captured around the clock. We believe Pimloc has created a leading-edge approach to visual security and privacy that will enable businesses and governments to manage visual data usage while safeguarding consumer privacy. We are excited to support their vision as they expand into broader Enterprise and SaaS markets,” added Rick Hao, principal at Speedinvest, in a supporting statement.