London-based software company SenSat has secured $10m in funding.
The firm, founded by Harry Atkinson and James Dean in 2015, has created a technology which uses photography and data from the real world to create a digital version which is understandable to computers.
This ‘digital twin’ and accompanying real time data are combined to create an up to date copy of the real world that can be used by sectors including infrastructure and construction to more precisely plan advancements.
Its Mapp app is used by Heathrow Airport, Kier and WSP for this purpose, and makes use of what the firm calls ‘Visual Intelligence’, a subset of AI focussed on teaching computers how to understand and interact with the real world.
The funding round, led by Tencent, had participation from Sistema Venture Capital.
Chief European Representative at Tencent Holdings Ling Ge will join the SenSat board as part of the move.
SenSat said it will use the funds grow its team from 30 to more than three-fold over the next year. It plans to hire on data scientists, mathematicians, and software developers.
It also plans to drive continued international expansion.
“SenSat has a simple but profound goal: to build the third platform, an intelligent eco-system that translates the real world into a version understandable to AI,” said James Dean, co-founder and CEO of SenSat.
“This technology will help us to build a more sustainable future, using the wealth of new insight to help humans make better decisions.”