social distancing tech from el salvador’s spot.io that you didn’t know you needed
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Contxto – Rapid response is what the 2020 game is all about. If you’re unable to adjust your business model and operations to new market dynamics, you’re gone.
Before this whole pandemic thing unrolled over Latin America, I interviewed Julio Ábrego—co-Founder of Salvadoran startup Spot.io—. Time flew, and so, I had to ask for some post-Covid updates.
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome
Spot.io is a startup from El Salvador that focuses on computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) for problem-solving.
Not only are they able to identify key car congestion issues and optimize traffic lights, but they’re also capable of identifying patterns in food traffic for retailers and brands. To top it all off, they can also identify criminals through facial recognition.
Among some of their notable clients and early adopters are El Salvador’s Soho Plaza and the country’s national police department.
Due to Covid-19, however, the company is implementing some changes.
According to Julio, Spot launched a new product capable of detecting body temperature along with facial recognition. This can be used by banks, stores, hotels, manufacturing facilities to track, detect, and act on the monitoring of clients’ or employees’ health.
The company is simultaneously thinking about self-service payment solutions. By being able to pay with your face (yes, your face), society will no longer need to depend on cash. It’s a social distancing measure that can slow down new spreads that you didn’t even know you needed.
Ready to rumble!
The startup is currently taking part in the Start-Up Chile program. It is for this reason that they’re testing waters beyond El Salvador, in Chile, before launching in broader markets, such as Mexico.
Their two main products up until now are traffic and retail. Their computer vision algorithms can identify clients’ demographics and “emotions” while purchasing at the store. It provides heat maps across the store, and can alert business owners of potential criminals based on facial recognition.
On the other hand, it can track vehicles’ color, brand, speed, and model. This is especially useful for traffic optimization, real-time alerts, and also, crime detectors. This is currently being tested in Santiago de Chile’s Las Condes and downtown.
Just not that into easy money
Julio emphasized their mission consists in being a “hard-tech” company, not just a software as a service (SaaS) or lightweight “easy money” product. They aim to change and solve urgent and critical challenges across Latin America and the world.
For this reason, apart from joining Start-Up Chile and finishing YC’s Startup School program, they’re already setting their sights on Y Combinator’s next batch.
Related articles: Tech and startups from Central America!
-VC
