Companies are given many early indicators before a serious accident or fatality occurs. However, today many companies have significant challenges in collecting and making use of this information for two reasons. Firstly, it is the low quality and quantity of risk observations due to manual reporting. The second challenge is the infrequent inspections due to cost and time consumption.
Every day over 6,000 people die in workplace accidents or work-related illnesses, and every year 340 million serious workplace accidents occur. The UN agency International Labour Organisation estimates the annual global cost at 3 trillion dollars for injuries and death caused in the workplace.
Stockholm and Berlin-based computer vision and AI startup, Buddywise, has identified the massive opportunity to identify and address early indicators of safety risks more effectively. It uses CCTV cameras and AI analysis of the video stream to continuously detect and report workplace risks 24/7.
Secures €1.2M funding
Buddywise has secured €1.2 million in pre-seed funding from investors such as Aligned Ventures and Hans-Olov Blom (CEO at Ramudden) and Antler (that invested in Modulize and Baselime). Also, it has brought in a group of high-profile angel investors, including Hans Stråberg (Chair of Atlas Copco & SKF), Hans-Olov Blom (CEO at Ramudden), and Martin Lundquist (CEO at Arundo Analytics).
The financing round will help the company to accelerate its commercial expansion, product development, and recruitment of top talents in sales and engineering.
“The great thing with our solution is that customers can quickly introduce our risk monitoring with a few cameras as the only sensor, making it easy and economical in industrial environments. Giving you a 24/7 safety manager that’s providing you with automated insights and analytics and real-time alerts,” said Lamin Faye, CEO, and co-founder of Buddywise. “Almost all workplace accidents could have been prevented if only someone saw, said, and did something. Our product gives customers a real chance at achieving a zero vision for accidents. We want this to become as natural as wearing a seat belt.”
“Safety is the highest priority for all industrial companies, and significant investments are made in this area. I believe that the Buddywise team and product have a unique opportunity to change our ability to effectively prevent accidents with the help of their AI-based safety system,” said Hans Stråberg.
Workplace safety for frontline workers
Buddywise was founded by Lamin Faye and Yiğit Can Arin in 2020. They have decades of experience in the safety and software domain. Lamin spent eleven years in top leadership roles within the utility Vattenfall and has been leading health & safety teams and innovation teams launching new digital products. Yiğit has spent over ten years developing software used by millions of people, both as a software engineer and a product manager, the latest at Spotify.
As employers, companies should have a legal responsibility for worker safety. Understanding this, Buddywise solves one of the biggest problems for the industry, construction, and warehouse sectors, which is workplace safety for the billions of frontline workers. They use computer vision and AI to proactively monitor workplace safety and mitigate risks and accidents, in real-time.
Since its debut, the company has been focusing on building its AI system and has worked closely with a few selected partners. It is finalising an extensive pilot with one of the biggest industrial players in the Nordics with a €10 billion annual turnover and is planning to roll out in more factories.
