Black Innovation

Black Innovation provides an AI-powered retail intelligence platform that transforms existing CCTV camera infrastructure into actionable retail insights by stitching together customer journeys across every camera in a store. The platform, known as the Black.ai System, uses a distributed sensor and compute system to map and monitor retail stores in real-time, detecting objects and events to understand visitor journeys, observe interactions such as pickup, put down, or inspection of items, and report notable events. Black.ai delivers two primary capabilities: conversion intelligence (conversion clarity, layout intelligence, promo performance measurement, and real-time service signals) and asset protection (investigating theft cases in minutes, tracking behavior patterns, quantifying shrink with validated data, and real-time alerts). The platform includes a journey player for watching full stitched customer journeys with faces blurred automatically, behavioral segmentation for filtering by dwell time, repeat entries, or high-conversion interactions, and customizable dashboards. Customer results include 40% reduction in cosmetic theft within 30 days, 90% faster investigations, 3x higher conversion from in-store retail media, and 80% faster case reviews. Black.ai is ISO 27001 certified, privacy-first with faces blurred by default before footage leaves the store, no PII collected, no facial recognition or gait tracking, and no third-party data sharing. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Carlton, Australia, Black Innovation has raised $8.6M in seed funding from investors including Right Click Capital, Jelix, Blackbird Ventures, Saltagen Ventures, Pan, Melbourne Accelerator Program, Startmate, R3i Capital, and In-Q-Tel.