A surveillance technology firm is doubling its presence and increasing production as it strives for global leadership.
Last week, Michael Matta managed to do something most executives only dream of: cutting a giant ribbon with very large scissors.
“We had a hard time getting together and collaborating in person without bumping into each other.”
Matta pulled out a huge boat to celebrate the renovation of Solinka's headquarters in Ottawa's west end. The expansion more than doubled the company's physical footprint and comes as customer and revenue growth has consistently increased by about 50 percent over the past four years, Matta told BetaKit.
The artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance technology company hosted local members of parliament, media representatives and the minister of artificial intelligence. Evan Solomon for a product launch and a brief tour of the offices to celebrate the expansion.
Solinka's staff outnumbered the event audience and surrounded them, standing shoulder to shoulder around the lobby, up the stairs and watching from the mezzanine. From the podium, Matta explained how the company started with three people who were given a server room in Wesley Clover's old office “just to do interesting work.” As the company grew, so did its occupancy rate. With the latest expansion, Solink's footprint has increased from 14,000 sq. ft. up to 31,000 sq. ft.
“We are proud of our Canadian origins and have grown the team to 400 employees,” said Matta, adding that the event is “a celebration of old ambitions and the desire to make Solink a global leader.”
Solink hasn't expanded “significantly” since the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a “pretty congested” office environment as the company has added 200 employees over the past two years, Matta explained to BetaKit after the event.
“We had a hard time getting together and collaborating in person without bumping into each other,” Matta said. “So this is an opportunity for us to scale.”
He added that Solink wants to have more than 1,000 employees in Ottawa and around the world by 2030.
In addition to additional socializing space, the expansion strengthened the logistics side of the business. Solink delivers and installs a physical device with its AI-powered surveillance platform to every customer, and the upgrade has increased production from a “couple hundred” units per month to potentially “several thousand” as needed, Matta said.
Solink technology helps restaurants, retail stores and other businesses get the most out of their security cameras. Using artificial intelligence, camera-independent software can flag suspicious behavior, track inventory levels, measure how long customers wait in line, and even monitor how employees use their cell phones. Solink says its technology is used in 500,000 cameras in 35,000 locations in 60 countries, including its first customer Tim Hortons.
Solink CTO Martin Soukup and VP of Product Christopher Sisto explained at the product demo that cameras are typically a reactive device that forces the operator to manually sort through the footage.
“Your cameras aren’t stupid, they’re just bored,” Sisto said.
CONNECTED: Video surveillance software startup Solink raises $23 million in Series B round
With Solink's video language model, an operator can review millions of hours of video from multiple CCTV cameras in seconds. Type “red truck” into the search bar, or even a specific car model, and you'll get every example of one that drives by your job site during the day.
In addition to security and loss prevention, Solink's offering can be used to maintain operational efficiency. One auto shop customer uses Solink to track whether it's delivering on its 15-minute oil change promise, and a warehouse can track whether its employees are using personal protective equipment.
Companies can also create artificial intelligence agents that watch live video and perform functions when certain criteria are met. Sisto and Soukup demonstrated a “security guard” that could be programmed to detect suspicious behavior, such as strangers taking boxes from a loading dock. The program then “talked” to the bums in the test footage, learning what clothes they were wearing, warning them that the police had been dispatched, and alerting the store manager via text message.
After a product demonstration, when an audience member's phone rang during Solomon's speech congratulating Solink on the expansion, the AI minister said, “Solink just spied on whoever was on the phone.” When BetaKit asked Matta how Solink addresses security concerns with such observability capabilities, he explained that customers own all of their data and that there is a layer of anonymization “when it's not secure.” [or] security related.”
“We do not identify people; there are no biometric methods. [data]there is nothing specific that identifies it with a specific, unique person,” Matta said, adding that Solink meets the requirements General data protection rules in the European Union and Great Britain.
However, he believes the biggest opportunity with surveillance capabilities like Solink's is the ability to contextually “zoom in” and “zoom out” access to data. While a human guard could “abuse” his unfettered access to the footage, Matta said “the machines don't care” and would hand over something if it was “risky” without violating confidentiality.
“In a situation where security is at risk, you actually want to remove all privacy and find out exactly what's going on with that person, but you always don't,” Matta said, before emphasizing that Solink doesn't identify people. “The police don’t need to know everything about everyone.”
Solink most recently raised $60 million. Series C round led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management's Growth Equity division in 2023. Matta told BetaKit that Solink has no plans to raise any more capital and that it still has “plenty of liquidity” from its latest funding.
“We continue to be good stewards of this capital,” Matta said. “So the focus now is to continue to scale and grow.”
All images courtesy of Alex Riehl for BetaKit.
