Case Study: Humanising Autonomy

Humanising Autonomy

 

Accelerating the adoption of autonomous machines to combat labour scarcity,

reduce waste and decrease emissions 


Recent valuation: 25x Britbots’ initial investment


Humanising Autonomy develops artificial intelligence software which improves the way autonomous machines interact with people. 


Why we invested

 

The adoption of autonomous machines – that is, machines which can carry out tasks intelligently, without the need to be directly controlled by humans - is a crucial part of combating all three of the global crises which Britbots’ investment thesis seek to combat:


1.     Plugging the gaps left by a shrinking global work force relative to overall population size.

2.     Reducing waste as a result of operational inefficiencies in a world of finite resources.

3.    Hastening the transition to a global economy powered by clean electricity (which powers autonomous machines) rather than hydrocarbons (which powers legacy machines and equipment).


One of the major barriers to widespread adoption of autonomous machines is the importance of ensuring that these machines are safe, particularly in environments where they are interacting with humans. 


Environments where autonomous machines interact with humans will become widespread


Humanising Autonomy develops artificial intelligence software to allow machines to understand the full spectrum of human behaviours with the aim that this will reduce accidents or inefficiencies resulting from misunderstandings.


The Company’s novel approach to behaviour recognition which can be can be integrated into any camera devices (dash cams, CCTV, infrastructure cameras etc.), allows its software to identify more than 150 characteristics of human behaviour, currently 10x more than current techniques, allowing for faster, more accurate and robust predictions of intent and improving the safety and effectiveness of autonomous machines as a result.  


Ignoring the vast potential for the company’s software in any instances involving the interaction of machines and people, the market for improving vehicle safety alone is a massive, with $156 billion spent in the UK and US each year on liability costs derived from accidents between vehicles and people. 


How they have been doing since we invested?


Since Britbots’ first invested in 2018, Humanising Autonomy has made impressive progress.


The Company has built out the largest, most diverse data set of human behaviours in the world: containing 200m people and an analysis of over 1 billion human behaviours. This is the foundation for highly accurate software covering a wide range of edge cases to ensure maximum applicability.

 

Initial traction has been strong. The Company’s technology is already deployed in 150,000 camera devises, has secured £10m of contracted annual revenue, and generated a customer list including companies like Nissan, Aisin and Siemens.


The company recently raised a £10m Series A at a valuation of 25x Britbots’ initial investment. 


Humanising Autonomy’s software allows machines to better predict human intent leading to safer outcomes in situations where humans and vehicles interact


Looking ahead


The need for economies and companies to integrate autonomous processes into their work flows will increase as the pressures of labour and resource availability continue to intensify. 

 

We believe Humanising Autonomy is creating one of the core components needed to ensure this integration between autonomous machines and humans can happen safely.

 

Over the next 2 years, having built out the foundation of their technology and secured initial clients, Humanising Autonomy is aiming to roll out their technology across their the initial target market of autonomous vehicles. Subsequently the Company plans to deploy into adjacent sectors such as industrial, construction, and behavioural analytics for retail. By 2025, the company is targeting deployments of 20m units and annual revenues of £250m.

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