Viact, a Hong Kong-based startup that uses artificial intelligence to monitor workplace safety at industrial facilities, has raised $7.3 million from investors including Singtel Innov8, the corporate venture arm of telecoms giant Singapore Telecommunications.
Viact said on Wednesday its Series A round was led by Irish investment firm Venturewave Capital. Other investors who participated in the funding round include Korea Investment Partners and PolyU Entrepreneurship Investment Fund.
The startup will use the proceeds to improve its AI video analytics software, said cofounder and CEO Gary Ng in an interview at Viact’s head office. Viact will also expand its existing business in Singapore and the Middle East, and enter new markets in Europe and the U.S., Ng said.
Viact’s most recent fundraising was in 2021, when it secured $2 million in a seed round from investors including Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund. The startup was featured on Forbes Asia 100 to Watch list in 2022.
Ng, a trained building engineer, cofounded Viact with schoolmate Hugo Cheuk in 2016 after seeing potential to digitize the labor-intensive construction industry. One obvious area was safety inspection, which at the time was carried out by security personnel monitoring surveillance cameras from a control room.
So Ng and Cheuk developed a computer vision software that can detect issues such as workers not wearing protective gears, danger zone intrusion and machinery collision. Early on, the duo often had to set up cameras at construction sites and spend days there to capture data for building the software, Ng recalled.
Their software, launched in 2019, works through construction sites’ existing security cameras. When potential hazards are identified, it will trigger on-site alarms as well as mobile alerts to notify off-site managers. The data is stored on clients’ servers or high-security public clouds, and Viact can access them only with clients’ consent, said Ng.
“There’re a lot of domain specific applications that no other generic AI company, such as Sensetime, could do,” Ng said. “Because we come from the construction industry, we understand how it works.”
Viact has since expanded to serve industries such as oil and gas, mining and manufacturing, adding capabilities to detect issues from gas leaks to product defects and bad worker postures. The startup also added functions that help work sites improve productivity, such as fleet route optimization, and monitor environmental issues, such as pollution and illegal dumping.
Viact’s software has been deployed in more than 300 work sites, mostly in construction, followed by oil and gas and manufacturing, said Ng. Its clients in Hong Kong include government departments and major property developers like Henderson Land Development. In Singapore, it works with government housing and land transport projects, while in Saudi Arabia, it serves oil behemoth Aramco as well as the Neom megacity project. Ng declined to disclose Viact’s financials, but said the startup has been profitable since 2019.
Viact is now working with an undisclosed data center operator to deploy its workplace safety software, said Ng. Meanwhile, the startup is looking to connect its software to drones and robots. Viact’s computer vision technology will allow drones to inspect the facade of high-rise buildings, while enabling robots to track progress at work sites, Ng added.
Viact is among the Hong Kong startups that are capitalizing on one of the world’s most urbanized markets. Others in the real estate technology space include Ampd Energy, which develops an all-electric replacement for diesel generators at construction sites. The company, whose power storage systems are deployed by major local developers including Sun Hung Kai Properties and Sino Group, was featured on Forbes Asia 100 to Watch list in 2021.
