New Delhi | 5th August 2020: Wobot Intelligence, an AI-powered video analytics platform has raised pre-series A from Sequoia India. Wobot’s tool connects to any existing CCTV or other forms of cameras and helps monitor process compliance while detecting and tracking anomalies in an organization’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). It offers video analytics for SOPs which include hygiene, safety, productivity, and customer experience to customers across industries.
Founded by Adit Chhabra, Tapan Dixit, and Tanay Dixit, Wobot will use the funds for global expansion and strengthening its proprietary technology platform. It will also help the company make some key executive appointments, expand its sales and marketing efforts as well as broaden and accelerate product development to cater to more use cases and customers.
CCTVs are common in factories, restaurants, workplaces, and several other sectors but are monitored ineffectively by humans in a big control room with multiple monitors. The vast amount of this data is unused and does not give any meaningful or actionable insight. Wobot is resolving this big gap with ‘smarter video analytics solutions that leverage deep learning to achieve more productive and automated monitoring. These solutions can be personalized and implemented across industries such as hospitality, manufacturing, pharma and retail among others.
Adit Chhabra, co-founder and CEO of Wobot said, “Wobot’s vision has always been to create a transparent and seamless workplace with 100% process compliance where the camera acts as a third eye and provides continuous feedback for employees on the job. This does not necessarily mean only pointing out violations but also giving a pat on the back for following the right SOPs and adhering to compliances.”
The market for CCTV installations was estimated to grow at a CAGR of around 11% YoY globally pre-Covid-19. It will grow even faster in the post-Covid-19 era. Covid-19 era has made businesses realise the value proposition of remote monitoring. Pre Covid-19, hygiene and safety of the workforce was a good-to-have now, it is a must have and companies are appreciating the importance of automation. For any future business continuity plans, video analytics will play a huge role and Wobot is well-positioned to take advantage of this opportunity”, he added.
Ashish Agrawal, Principal, Sequoia Capital India LLP said, “Computer vision has seen tremendous advances in recent years, resulting in widespread adoption for varied enterprise needs. This includes process compliance in areas such as security, manufacturing, and retail. Increased concern for hygiene and safety post-Covid-19 has heightened the importance of process compliance. Sequoia India is excited to partner with the Wobot team as they build a global SaaS business serving this enterprise need.”
How does it work?
Wobot employs deep learning techniques to detect any change in SOPs, automatically list them, and make them trackable for relevant stakeholders. Once plugged into an existing camera, this AI then detects people, objects, and activities. Basis an industry or company’s selected use cases, it raises alerts of any deviation from those processes. The alerts are received by the supervisor with a short clip for immediate and effective action.
Examples of use cases;
- In a kitchen – it can detect use of hairnet, gloves and 20-second hand wash compliance.
- At a construction site – It can detect the use of safety jackets, helmets and worker productivity
- In a manufacturing plant- It canDetect loading/unloading activity and duration or a specific task on an assembly line.
- In a hospital – It can detect PPE and hand wash compliance
- In a pharma lab – It can detect PPE gowning process
- In a restaurant – It can detect cleaning activity as well as order/wait times
- In stores – It can detect customer service within a time limit or sanitisation activity.
Today, Wobot has become a cost-effective and autonomous way of monitoring hygiene, safety, productivity, and customer experience across various organizations. Wobot is a robust team of 60+ and has completed 10,000+ installations for customers including Kitopi, CultFit, Rebel Foods, Travel Food Services, EatFit, Blue Tokai, Apparel Group, Max Estates & Housing and more.
In 2018, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) signed up with Wobot to monitor the food production process across its several base kitchens. Subsequently Wobot intelligence raised a seed round of funding from Titan Capital too. Since then Wobot has been continuously partnering up with clients across the country, Middle East and South East Asia where it aims to expand presence going forward. Further as the next phase of growth, Wobot aims to enter the US market as well as introduce more use cases for the healthcare and manufacturing sectors.
