ADVICE FOR START-UPS


Turning tech into business triumph


Vision start-ups are proliferating, thanks to AI and embedded computing. But what makes young companies successful? Abigail Williams reports


effort around neural networks and AI-based image processing. Over the last decade, this technology has moved from academic research labs to a topic that almost every company in the vision sector is addressing – a trend further enabled by powerful processors such as GPU modules, together with freely available neural network architectures and associated tool chains like TensorFlow and Keras. ‘Both these points [AI and processors] have


considerably lowered the barriers to entry for start-up companies to develop vision AI products for the market, and opened the way for many new companies to enter the space,’ said Yates. Te combination of inexpensive, low-power


computing, AI tool chains and high-quality image sensors means that extremely powerful vision systems can be built for many different domains. Whereas the need for a PC would previously have ruled out such applications, Yates pointed out that embedded vision is now providing value in consumer home goods, agricultural sensing, medical devices, waste recycling and many more areas. ‘Vision has the potential to become truly


ubiquitous, and it is an outstanding success of the vision industry that many companies are developing vision systems targeted at specific domains, while using the same fundamental technology building blocks,’ he said. Markus Lukasson, founder and CTO at


Berlin-based Nyris, noted that a huge amount of new start-ups are applying machine learning to solve vision issues. Nyris launched its visual search engine in 2017. ‘What is special about vision start-ups is that


machine- and deep-learning is advancing so fast, and new opportunities to apply machine learning to solve a problem that has not been practically or economically solvable before pop up every day,’ Lukasson said. ‘Everything is changing fast and this speed creates challenges and opportunities alike.’ Lukasson added that it’s become cheap to


T


he machine vision sector is a natural home for start-ups. A lot of the now dominant players in the market


began as technology start-ups, and while the industry has grown and matured, it’s still an area where technical innovation can flourish. Chris Yates, director at Vision Ventures,


a company specialising in corporate transactions in automated imaging, machine vision and computer vision, said the vision tech sector provides tremendous opportunities for start-ups, and is an exciting market to be part of from a founder’s perspective. Tere’s also excellent investment potential, he noted. Tere are new approaches to vision


technology being developed and commercialised all the time, which can be applied to a vast array of automation and imaging tasks. ‘Te sheer scope of vision technology is


probably one of the most unique aspects of the sector, and brings with it a wealth of opportunity,’ Yates said. ‘However, for both start-ups and investors, this breadth also creates a clear need to understand market structure and dynamics in detail to be successful.’


Changing landscape One area that has had a marked impact on the vision start-up landscape in recent years has been the phenomenal development


22 IMAGING AND MACHINE VISION EUROPE VISION YEARBOOK 2022/23


launch a software-based vision start-up, but that vision hardware requires significantly more investment. Global awareness of the success of the


vision industry has also changed the start-up landscape. Whereas, traditionally, start-ups in the vision sector often looked to organic growth based on dedicated internal expertise, Yates observed that, today, demand for vision technology by large end-user markets – and the major suppliers to these markets – has attracted many financial and corporate investors to vision tech. ‘Te availability of significant finance to


early-stage companies has enabled them to develop products quicker and scale faster, as well as create more solution-based product offerings,’ Yates said. ‘Additionally, the continued growth in number and size of


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