Mindtech raises over £4.4M to power the future of computer vision training

Mindtech Global, a Sheffield company that works in the field of synthetic data for AI vision systems, has successfully secured £4.4 million in a funding round led by Edge, with participation from Mercia Ventures. The investment, sourced from Mercia’s own funds and the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, will allow Mindtech Global to further develop its technology, expand its presence in key markets like Japan, the US and Europe, and strengthen its partnerships with industry leaders.

Mindtech Global addresses a critical challenge faced by AI developers – the acquisition of sufficient images and datasets to train computer vision systems effectively. The company’s Chameleon platform leverages game technology to create a virtual world, generating a diverse range of realistic images. These images incorporate various backgrounds, objects, individuals from different ethnicities and varying times of day or night.

Chameleon offers several advantages, including reduced costs and development time. It also ensures companies maintain legal ownership of their data and comply with privacy regulations. By utilizing diverse images, Mindtech Global helps prevent bias within AI systems. The company’s latest platform, Dolphin, analyses existing training databases to identify potential issues such as bias, lack of diversity and sparsity of training data.

Steve Harris, CEO of Mindtech, said: “This investment marks a pivotal moment for our company. With this support, we’re able to advance our technology and meet the growing demand for robust AI vision solutions across sectors.”

Mindtech Global emerged from an idea conceived by a group of industry veterans, including Sir Hossein Yassaie, the former CEO of Imagination Technologies. The company now boasts a team of approximately 25 individuals and its technology finds applications in sectors such as retail, healthcare, transportation and robotics.

The latest investment arrives at a crucial juncture. Analyst firm Gartner predicts that by 2025, synthetic data will constitute the majority of data used in AI training due to increasing concerns about data scarcity.

Image source: Mindtech (L-R) Steve Harris, Mindtech’s CEO, and Chris Longstaff, COO