Plural re-invested in an AI-powered tool for detecting harmful online content Unitary
Founded in London in 2019 by Haco Sasha and James Thewlis, Unitary develops AI models that simultaneously analyze multiple signals, and understand the content of online videos, images, and context surrounding them, like titles, comments, and so on. The technology assesses the amount of risk and harm and makes a context-aware moderation. The solution analyzes visual content as a human moderator would do so: it interprets content in context. For instance, Unitary's AI models can distinguish between a video that glorifies hate speech and documentary footage that aims to raise awareness about hateful content. The technology is used in tandem with human moderators. The startup’s technology can classify 6M videos a day. It is three times more than at the beginning of this year. In addition, the company claims that its ARR reached seven figures.
Unitary will use this investment to continue its research and development programs, scale its team, and partner with the world’s leading social platforms and brand safety organizations. The platform is now adding more languages beyond English.
Plural Platform is a €250 million early-stage venture fund started by Sten Tamkivi (founder of software company Teleport), Taavet Hinrikus (founder of money transfer service Wise), Ian Hogarth, and Khaled Helioui in 2022. It focuses on leading early-stage rounds between €1 and €10M. In 2023, it invested in British leg tech Robin AI, Danish healthtech Teton, US asset-backed secured credit card Pesto, Dutch nanoparticle generator VSParticle, which can split materials at the atomic level in just a few minutes, and London-based carbon removal registry Isometric.
