Plural invested in AI-platform Unitary

Venture capital firm Plural, co-founded by Estonian entrepreneurs Sten Tamkivi and Taavet Hinrikus, invested in the AI platform Unitary. The $8M round was co-led with business angels Matt Robinson, Chris Mairs, and Carolyn Everson. 

Unitary’s AI technology helps moderate harmful content online. This technology uses multimodal algorithms to understand online visual content, assess the amount of risk and harm, and make a context-aware moderation. According to the company, its solution can distinguish between a video that glorifies hate speech and documentary footage that aims to raise awareness about hateful content, for example.

The startup will use the money on further expansion in the US market. It will develop solutions in partnership with social networks and ad tech companies, and continue improving the open-source solution Detoxify (an application that allows one to identify inappropriate or harmful text online).

Plural is a €250 million fund started by Sten Tamkivi (founder of software company Teleport, acquired by Topia), Taavet Hinrikus (money transfer service Wise founder), Ian Hogarth, and Khaled Helioui in 2022. It focuses on leading early-stage rounds between €1 and €10M. Recently the fund has invested in another UK-based platform Robin AI, which helps companies with contract drafting and editing.

The startup was co-founded by Haco Sasha and James Thewlis in London in 2019.