Stockholm-based AI startup Buddywise raises €3.5m seed funding to prevent workplace accidents in Europe
Stockholm-based Buddywise, the platform transforming workplace safety with AI across Europe, has announced a €3.5 million seed round. The round was co-led by Helsinki-based industrial technology fund Kvanted data and AI specialist fund J12, joined by existing investors Aligned and Antler.
A group of high-profile angel investors including Hans Stråberg (Chair at Atlas Copco and SKF), Hans-Olov Blom (founder of Ramudden Global) and Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss (founder of Soundcloud) also participated in the round. With the new capital, Buddywise will accelerate the recruitment of top commercial and tech talent as well as further expand its existing customer base of international industrial enterprises to initiate the company’s commercial expansion across Europe.
Workplace health and safety is a rising global concern. According to the International Labor Organization, nearly three million workers die every year due to work-related accidents and diseases. Furthermore, there are more than 395 million serious accidents annually, causing lifelong injuries for workers globally. The total economic loss from work-related deaths and disability-adjusted life years equates to 6% of the global GDP. In the EU, there were 2.9 million non-fatal accidents that resulted in at least four calendar days of absence from work and over 3000 fatal accidents in 2021. Over a fifth of all fatal workplace accidents in the EU occurred within the construction sector.
Buddywise has built a unique solution that utilizes the power of artificial intelligence and computer vision to pinpoint real-time safety risks in the workplace. Industrial clients can easily connect their existing camera infrastructure to the Buddywise platform. The platform enables safety leaders and management to immediately take action at the earliest indication of risk, and proactively mitigate hazards as the 24/7 collection of data generates continuous insights to learn and act upon. This technology can significantly increase the protection of teams working on industrial sites, and has the potential to disrupt workplace safety practices across Europe and beyond.
Lamin Faye, Co-founder and CEO, Buddywise: ''Everybody should be able to return home unharmed after a day's work, so we can’t accept the status quo. Every accident can be prevented and with Buddywise Operational and Safety leaders can finally get the real-time data they need to do so. The new funding means that we can bring more customers towards their zero injury vision and we will invest heavily into our ability to enable learning and action based on our data-driven insights.''
Emmet King, Partner, J12: ''Recent advancements related to computer vision models have seen great improvements in image classification and object detection, while also enabling efficient learning from limited information and more reliable performance across diverse real-world conditions. This has positioned the technology to be the primary tool in combating the serious issue of workplace safety and to replace the status quo of reporting apps, inspections, and sensors. Buddywise has built a leading solution and we’ve been thoroughly impressed by the way Lamin, Yigit, and the rest of the team are working towards a zero injury vision.''
With the new capital, Buddywise will accelerate the recruitment of top commercial and tech talent, further expand its existing customer base of international industrial enterprises, and initiate commercial expansion across Europe. As of today, Buddywise’s solution has already been adopted at multiple industrial sites across Sweden, Finland, Latvia, and Poland, covering industries ranging from infrastructure and manufacturing to pulp and paper.
