Roboflow Raises Seed Funding for the Startup’s Computer Vision Platform

By Thomas Price | Tuesday, 26 January 2021 | Startup, Tech

As technology becomes more accessible to the general public, the need for simplified models for creating and developing this technology has become much larger. As a result, many tech startups are working very hard to do this. One of these startups is Roboflow, which is developing computer vision models for a larger audience of people outside of engineers. The startup recently closed on its seed funding round, setting itself up for future growth as it builds out its technology and user base. As the company continues to evolve, how exactly does Roboflow work, what kind of funding has it received so far, and what can the market expect from the startup as it continues to grow?

Roboflow’s Platform and Seed Funding Round

Roboflow is a startup that is developing a platform that allows individual users to create their own computer vision applications without extensive programming expertise. The platform was launched in January 2020 by its two founders and entrepreneurs, Joseph Nelson and Brad Dwyer, with the original intention of simply being a management system for large image data sets. Instead, however, the platform became a hub for every step in the process, including image management, analysis, pre-processing, augmentation, building image recognition models, and putting those models into production.

Considering that many companies are looking into and hoping to develop computer vision applications, this platform allows them to do so without extensive knowledge about the technology. As a result, the startup’s platform has garnered significant popularity within the year since its launch. In fact, Roboflow already has over 20,000 developers using their software, including some from companies such as OkCredit, Getaround, Soundslice, and Paneau.

This popularity among developers has resulted in the startup earning a strong seed funding round of $2.1 million. The funding round was led by Lachy Groom and Craft Ventures with participation from several individual investors, including Calvin French-Owen, Leore Avidar, James Tamplin, and Aston Motes.

The startup plans to use this funding in order to help expand the small team that is currently only made up of five people. The company plans on hiring employees to increase the size of both its engineering and marketing teams.

When speaking on the importance of Roboflow, investor Calvin French-Owen said, “Historically, it’s been hard for anyone but the biggest tech companies to harness this data, and actually turn it into a valuable product. Roboflow is building the pipelines for the rest of us. They’re helping engineers take the data that tells a thousand words, and giving them the power to turn that data into recommendations and insights.”

Final Conclusions

Roboflow is offering a platform that has made computer vision applications more accessible to a larger group of people. With the solid seed funding round, and the soon to be expanded team of workers, it appears that the startup is set to see further success as more users continue to use the platform.

About the Author

Thomas Price

Tom Price is a writer focusing on Entertainment and Sports Features. He has a degree from NYU in English with a minor in Creative Writing. He has been previously published for Washington Square News, Dignitas, CBR, and Numbers on the Boards.