About Us
How Lightly came to be
We’re a group of creative thinkers who have built a business to change the world.
The story of Lightly goes back to 2019 when Igor was doing research in computer vision at ETH Zurich. While developing deep learning models, he wondered whether he would need all the collected data. Having to label, all his data manually sounded dreadful to him. Thus, he started looking for a smart way to filter and select his raw data. Unfortunately, he couldn't find a plug-and-play solution, which is why he started developing a solution himself.
During the same time, he joined forces with Matthias, and they decided to make the solution available to every engineer facing this problem.
What started with a simple solution for Igor's problem became a plug-and-play active learning tool with a suite of parameters that filters almost every image, video, and 3D datatype.
In 2020 Lightly raised an Angel round led by First Momentum Ventures and Another.vc. The round also included angels such as successful entrepreneurs.
In 2021 Lightly got accepted into the prestigious Y-Combinator accelerator and raised a Seed round of $3m led by Wingman Ventures and Soma Capital. Furthermore, the company increase it's US footprint by setting up a U.S entity Lightly Inc.
Ultimately, our goal is to become the Nr. 1 active-learning platform for machine learning that manages all data flows starting with collection devices and vehicles and ending with the data storage.
Founding Management
Igor Susmelj
Igor is responsible for the technical development of the product. He holds a BSc and MSc in Electrical Engineering from ETH Zurich and published numerous academic articles with a focus on deep learning. Igor has also gained valuable work experience as a software engineer, and in startups
Matthias Heller
Matthias is responsible for the strategy and growth of the company. He holds a BA from the University of St. Gallen and a MSc in Strategic Management from HEC Paris. Furthermore, Matthias was a visiting student at Harvard University and has gained valuable experience in consulting, VC, and IB
Igor and Matthias are now supported by a brilliant team, which has years of experience in accelerating research in artificial intelligence and incorporating this into business processes and core products.
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