Startup interview: Karen K. Burns, Co-founder and CEO, Fyma

RTIH gets the lowdown on Estonian computer vision and artificial intelligence startup, Fyma.

RTIH: Tell us about Fyma

KB: With 770 million CCTV cameras installed around the world today and set to exceed one billion this year, our mission is to help retail sector clients (retailers, shopping centre owners, real estate investment managers etc) unlock value hidden within existing video footage using AI and computer vision.

We do this by transforming any new or legacy outdoor and CCTV camera into smart sensors that capture real-time data and extract insights. 

Our AI helps clients better understand the activity and behaviour of people/objects in a built environment to increase efficiencies and revenue.

We offer a 100% plug and play SaaS solution that integrates with virtually any IP camera setup meaning clients don't have to invest in additional infrastructure. 

Our platform is also self-learning removing the burden of manually inputting thousands of business rules and significantly reducing onboarding times. 

Fyma is funded by early stage VCs including Change Ventures, 7 Percent and Tiny VC.

“We’ve been really fortunate to have secured the backing of brilliant investors who really believe in our vision and in the simplicity and potential of our tech to be used in numerous applications (e.g. security, business analytics, Covid compliance etc) as well as to optimise how retail spaces are used”

RTIH: What was the inspiration behind setting the company up?

KB: My co-founder Taavi and I had worked together at an IT consultancy before. We have matching skill sets and temperaments and decided to start out on our own.

The inspiration came from a small local project where idle publicly available city cameras were used in place of sensors to measure traffic flows.

We soon realised that the world is brimming with camera technology, yet mostly they’re aggregating vast amounts of dumb data.

Could we use this data to improve the layout and design of urban spaces so people and objects could move around more efficiently and create a more equitable public space as a result?

We decided to start out on this journey and focus on shopping centres - post pandemic they will become even more relevant as leisure spaces and multi-use hubs, so helping them better understand their visitors, how they spend their time there and for how long is key to getting their positioning and brand mix right.

The onset of the pandemic and the restrictions and limitations arising from it emphasised the relevance and need for a solution like ours within the retail sector. 

We are currently working with one of the biggest and busiest shopping centres in the Baltics monitoring shopper behaviours, demographics (age/gender) and covid impact on footfall.

Our solution is being used to evaluate how spaces are performing and to determine how best to optimise the use of space to enhance the customer experience and support sales whilst providing a Covid secure environment for customers and shopping centre workers.

RTIH: What has been the industry reaction thus far?

KB: We have had a really positive response from the industry and will soon roll-out a number of exciting projects with additional shopping centres and a retail and multi-use complex in London.

We’ve been really fortunate to have secured the backing of brilliant investors who really believe in our vision and in the simplicity and potential of our tech to be used in numerous applications (e.g. security, business analytics, Covid compliance etc) as well as to optimise how retail spaces are used.

The retail and shopping centres that have seen our demo realise just how much invaluable insight they’re able to get with our easy to use solution, that they no longer need to install expensive IoT technologies like WiFi trackers and hundreds of various beacons which all aggregate the same data.

They can simply upgrade their existing camera infrastructure and use them as sensors instead. 

“For years online has been benefiting from an increased focus on optimisation and investment in innovation. On the other hand, things developed much slower (or not at all) on the side of physical retail, which in our opinion was underestimated and sidelined. However, current technology makes it possible to create meaningful insights about the flow and behaviour as well as demographics of people in physical spaces”

RTIH: What has been your biggest challenge/setback?

KB: We started out with multiple use cases for our AI and computer vision solution ranging from urban planning to transportation and real estate.

One of our biggest challenges was defining our proposition and determining where we could make the biggest impact. This took time and lots of iterations, but was definitely the biggest challenge for us so far. 

RTIH: What are the biggest challenges facing the omnichannel retail sector right now?

KB: What we’re seeing is that Covid revealed a mismatch. For years online has been benefiting from an increased focus on optimisation and investment in innovation.

On the other hand, things developed much slower (or not at all) on the side of physical retail, which in our opinion was underestimated and sidelined. However, current technology makes it possible to create meaningful insights about the flow and behaviour as well as demographics of people in physical spaces.

One of the future challenges will be for retail to rediscover the omnichannel configuration and redefine the role physical retail will play going forward.

Bricks and mortar shopping isn’t going anywhere - providing a better shopping experience thanks to actionable insights and as a result delivering higher conversion rates is key to running these successfully in the future. 

RTIH: What's the best question about your company or the market asked of you recently by an investor and/or a customer?

KB: It’s the Covid question that is on everyone’s minds. It’s both the best and most frequent question we get asked.

Of course it’s impossible to predict with certainty, but we are seeing increased demand in understanding how to leverage technology to improve the retail experience and improve the bottom lines.

The pandemic accelerated a lot of behaviours that the retail industry was perhaps expecting to happen in five or ten years, not within a year. Once lockdown is lifted people will want to come back out and have a real life shopping experience.

While we won’t know what it will actually look like, we do know there will be more emphasis in tailoring the customer journey to make use of data and insights.

RTIH: What can we expect to see from you over the next 12 months?

KB: On the product side of things we will be working on and rolling out lots of new features, making lots of real-world use-cases available via our (soon to launch) new website and other channels and also working on educating our customers about the possibilities of computer vision AI.

We want to make Fyma accessible to even more non-technical teams, creating insights, considering new variables (external factors such as weather, traffic, etc) and helping increase revenue and conversion through utilising these. 

We will also be developing the business in the UK and other key markets in Europe. Fyma will continue building on this concept of a ‘physical customer journey’.

Something that will grow in relevance in physical retail where data and insights will grow exponentially in utility and become less ‘gimmicky’ and more ingrained into the operating model.