See-Out Pty Ltd, an exciting NICTA start-up that will help people protect their trademarks and brands in the digital age, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from the women-focused angel group Scale Angels and QUT’s Creative Enterprise Australia (CEA).
See-Out is developing Ceeq, a visual search product that it believes will mark a fundamental shift in protection of trademarks and brands in the modern electronic era. Its early product is a web-based visual search engine that can scan over 18 million trademark searches and examinations.
Founded in 2011, See-out incorporates some image recognition technology originally developed at NICTA. With a grant from Commercialisation Australia, it has advanced the tool and is hurtling toward the release of a commercial product. See-Out plans to use the proceeds of this round to enhance the product, and to build a marketing and sales team.
“Sandra Mau (See-Out CEO) is an extraordinary combination of technologist and entrepreneur,” said Scale Angel Lauren Melton, who led the deal. “She has a bright future and will inspire many young women to pursue careers in science and technology along the way. Scale investors are excited to facilitate and share that journey with her.”
Mau studied aerospace at the University of Toronto, and robotics at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States. She also earned an MBA at QUT.
“With the large number of logos and other brand images being generated daily, text search is not sufficient to secure a brand,” said Mau. “This backing from our investors will enable See-Out to grow its Australian image search tech innovation into a global standard.”
Anna Rooke, CEA’s chief executive, calls See-Out as “a great fit for CEA’s Creative Enterprise Fund” because the fund is focused on creative industries worth an estimated $30 billion to Australia’s GDP.
“We are delighted to be able to make our first investment through our Creative Enterprise Fund in See-Out Pty Ltd who like us, are capitalising on a significant market opportunity,” said Rooke.
