London-based startup Unitary raises $15m for AI-driven content moderation

London-based startup Unitary has raised $15m in a Series A round led by Creandum with participation from Paladin Capital Group and Plural to scale its AI video classification technology.

Unitary was founded to build AI products that could help businesses keep their digital environments safe. Since 2019, Unitary has been developing AI technology that understands video the same way that humans can. By simultaneously analysing multiple signals, Unitary's machine learning technology is capable of understanding the content of videos and images, as well as the context in which they appear. Unitary believes that this capability will be crucial as platforms adapt to new regulations like the UK’s Online Safety Bill, and the EU’s Digital Services Act, which will require more proactive moderation and action against illegal content, including child sexual abuse material.

Sasha Haco, CEO, Unitary: "Our vision is for ethical, empathetic AI to enhance how visual content is experienced online. We’ve always focused on how we might be able to use AI to ensure a safer online experience, and keep up with the pace of internet content. This funding enables us to stay at the forefront of video understanding research and fulfil our mission of making the internet better."

Driven by complex video content that makes up 80% of internet traffic, the amount of information online is set to increase by a factor of ten between 2020 and 2025. Because the scale of this challenge is beyond human reviewers alone, Unitary has developed a machine learning solution to help platforms navigate nuance by analysing combinations of visual, aural, and textual content. To accelerate these efforts, Unitary will use this investment to bolster its research and development programmes, scale the team, and forge deep partnerships with the world’s leading social platforms and brand safety organisations.

AI is a powerful tool, and in many ways a double-edged sword. In this new online world, dominated by daily technological breakthroughs and bad actors who are always one step ahead, we need AI to manage AI. 

www.unitary.ai