2019 Santam Safety Ideas Season 3 winners announced

L to R: DeepData CEO and CTO, Dr Jasper Horrell, DeepData chief commercial officer, Henty Waker, Santam chief marketing officer: Mokaedi Dilotsotlhe, Cloudline founder, Spencer Horne

In its third season, the Santam Safety Ideas competition continues to incubate startups that are focused on providing South Africa with various degrees of safety through the use of technology and innovation.

Cloudline offers 24-hour automated and long-range surveillance and can be operated remotely. Additionally, DeepData provides real-time video and imagery collection and analysis by using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Mokaedi Dilotsotlhe, Santam’s chief marketing officer, says, “The clear and focused approach both winners took with their product particularly set them apart. Santam is focused on leading innovation in the insurance industry and we are committed to seeking out opportunities where we can continue to aid the growth of the Safety Ideas winners.”

Cloudline concept startup founder, Spencer Horne shares that the dream for his company is to create a culture of positive use of drones to ensure safety for people both on land and flying. “We want to combat challenges in safety, endurance and costs that keep drones from serving everyone effectively,” Horne states.

He is confident that Cloudline will start to achieve this goal within the next year. “The Safety Ideas initiative has given us the tools to make this possible. It has provided us with a journey of honing our value proposition and the support of the LaunchLab team and exposure to the LaunchLab ecosystem of startups which has resulted in both internal refinement, external partnerships and even new team members coming on board,” Horne concludes.

For video analytics startup, DeepData, expansion is the goal. The company was founded to bridge the gap between crime in the country and the data-intensive technologies which could prevent this. The company, however, has experienced resource constraints in achieving this, but intends to use its winnings to engage with various niche analytics-focused areas as well as overseas markets.

Following the Safety Ideas initiative, Jasper Horrell, co-founder of DeepData remains optimistic. “It is very exciting and a great honour to have been selected as one of the Season 3 competition winners. We look forward to an ongoing partnership with Santam and LaunchLab in developing and deploying AI-based world-leading video analytics technology to make for a safer world for all."

Philip Marais, CEO of the LaunchLab, concludes, “It was tough to choose the final winners of Season 3 of the Santam Safety Ideas Challenge because of the quality of the startups. Well done to DeepData and Cloudline. Although they are the chosen winners, we still see lots of opportunities for the other six startups to deliver value for Santam as well.”