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Upcitiis a Gallic startup that has been working on a hardware sensor for city centers that is easy to install and maintain . This ironware mental faculty acts as the foundation of Upciti ’s data management platform for local governments .
Unlike traditional security measures cameras , Upciti has been design with seclusion in mind . The inauguration focalise on using data to inform public insurance , not data surveillance .
And the company secured $ 7.5 million ( € 7 million ) in new funding this summer . Point Nine and Chalfen Ventures are leading the round , with existing investor Demeter and Innovacom also participating . As part of this round , the startup raise € 6 million in a traditional equity startup financing stave and € 1 million in debt .
When I mouth with Upciti ’s laminitis and CEO Jean - Baptiste Poljak , what struck me is that the inauguration is based on some secure principle and design choices . It mold the ware design and it shows how a smart city ship’s company can help cities and abide by everyone ’s privacy at the same metre .
Upciti started with a simple problem . When you ’re driving in a dense urban sphere , it can be tricky to regain a parking spot . The squad tried to assemble data point with unlike hardware sensors , include basis sensors , infrared - establish sensors , etc .
“ But there was nothing that could really be deploy over an entire city . You could do bits and piece here and there , but every clip you had to ask for a construction permission , you had to dig up the ground — it was like hell , ” Poljak told me .
concisely after that , the troupe realize that it would be easier to use a photographic camera on light pole . But Upciti did n’t peck any camera . The inauguration has been using low - resoluteness cameras with a very wide angle so that it can cover a large ground area with a individual camera .
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Why did n’t Upciti rely on be security cameras ? “ It ’s throttle because there are n’t security system cameras everywhere , ” Poljak said . “ And there ’s a huge issue as we retrieve that regulation was going to change and prohibit us from gathering 4 K images of the street with face , license plates , cars — where you may recognise everything . ”
With Upciti ’s broken - firmness of purpose cameras , the society ca n’t identify faces , show permit plates or even key out the motorcar brand . “ That ’s what we call privacy by design . Even if tomorrow we ’re go brainsick and betray our society to North Korea , the images you’re able to get out of this are like stamp stamps , a human face is 0.5 pixel , ” Poljak said .
But with these sensors , Upciti ’s sensing element can identify if a fomite is a car or a delivery truck . Those computer hardware modules can also number pedestrian cut across the street somewhere . Everything is process on the street sensors directly . The images themselves do n’t leave the low-cal poles . Upciti only gathers text - establish data point through cellular connectivity .
“ So that ’s why we created our own hardware . It ’s not because we require to make ironware , because candidly , if we could have done without it , we would n’t have made our own computer hardware , ” Poljak said . “ But this way we ’ll be able to deploy our solution everywhere , we do n’t have to occupy about declaring photographic camera and we can focus on a single point of installation that ’s managed by a single entity — public firing . ”
A platform play
Smaller cities ordinarily do n’t have a data point strategy . They operate with several provider , but there ’s no single source of true statement where data is stored and can be reuse for other service of process . Chances are metropolis have lake and warehouses , but no datum lake nor data warehouse .
Upciti ’s data gather sensors represent the first step of a bigger platform strategy . Upciti works with adult metropolis like Monaco and Florence , but also smaller cities like Vannes , Lorient and Fécamp — it works with 56 cities overall .
And there ’s no single use vitrine , as cities often have different want . For instance , Upciti can collect datum about parking berth and then transmit that data to parking apps , such as PayByPhone or Flowbird .
In some cases , local governments want to determine car dealings by telling people where they should go to find a parking spotlight . In other cases , local government desire to tell people that they can go to the city center rather of heading to the shopping center because there are currently many empty parking billet .
Upciti wants to go one step further and help city create data pipeline . “ In Orleans , for example , street lighting is master harmonize to actual traffic term , ” Poljak said . If there are more thanxcars driving past the Upciti sensor every 10 hour , keep the lights on .
“ We also count walker . You might recall ‘ but , why ? ’ We have a manipulation case in Florence , Italy , which for me is the most ripe use case . They ’re having problems with overtourism . Basically , you get everyone at the same clock time , in the same place , in Florence ’s main foursquare . So we ’ve equipped Florence ’s squares , we count the identification number of citizenry in the square , and we send the data in real sentence to Florence ’s tourism app , ” Poljak said .
After that , the metropolis can turn up this data to tourists and display popular sentence ( so that mass can avoid them ) . They also use that information to mail real - sentence offering to museum at the other final stage of the city .
Of of course , that ’s a use case that requires some API desegregation . average - sized urban center do n’t needfully have a maturation budget . That ’s why Upciti also provides a data visual image splasher that is ready to utilize .
While there ’s a ironware component part , Upciti does n’t sell its computer hardware sensor directly . It sell an access code to its platform , which include ironware sensor , the visualization dashboard , an API , etc .
finally , Upciti could become the main information platform for cities that do n’t have one . Local governments could integrate data from other sensors and add data from undetermined data seed . This is why it makes sense for Upciti to lift money so that it can flesh out its software platform .
The go - to - market strategy is quite elegant . The ship’s company sign newfangled contracts with their ironware sensors and it could then become an essential vertical SaaS chopine for local government .
