Digital Catapult continues its investment journey with £550,000 into Camera Intelligence

Digital Catapult, a deep tech innovation organisation, has announced a £550,000 investment into Camera Intelligence to scale its camera platform which leverages on-device AI for a more intuitive and intelligent content creation experience.

The investment will help drive the adoption of Camera Intelligence’s solution in the creative industries, both in the UK and abroad, by supporting further research and development activities and the company’s go-to-market strategy, helping to shape the future of digital influencing through the practical application of deep tech.

The European creator economy is on track for significant growth, with the market projected to reach £84 billion by 2034, driven by affiliate marketing, brand deals, and financial incentives for content that performs well. To keep up with demand for new content, creators need a solution to film high-quality content using the tools they already have, namely their smartphones.

Camera Intelligence’s camera uniquely combines the superior optical quality of a professional DSLR camera, featuring a large Micro Four Thirds sensor and an interchangeable lens mount, with the advanced processing power of a smartphone. The camera’s core electronics is driven by a cutting-edge Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC and a Google Coral Edge TPU (Tensor Processing Unit), providing the processing necessary to run sophisticated AI models entirely on-device.

The hardware stack enables the camera’s defining feature, which is a proprietary AI architecture that transforms the camera into an intelligent and collaborative creative partner, using a Large Language Model (LLM) with an interchangeable lens mirrorless camera. This allows creators to direct their creative workflow using natural language, reducing the complexity of high-end production. The camera can interpret user intent via voice commands, streamlining production processes like initial camera setup to facilitate complex visual styles, all in real-time.

The solution was developed during Digital Catapult’s AI innovation and accelerator programme, where Camera Intelligence benefitted from investment readiness support, industry mentorship, innovation consultancy and access to deep tech experimentation facilities. Digital Catapult helps startups in the UK’s creative industries to scale and has facilitated £52million of investment into creative technology pioneers since 2018.

Vishal Kumar, CEO and Co-Founder of Camera Intelligence said: “We’re thrilled to receive this investment from Digital Catapult, which marks a pivotal moment in our journey to revolutionise content creation. This support will enable us to scale our intelligent solutions for the camera of the future, making high-quality content creation more accessible for creators and driving innovation in the digital media space. Having benefited immensely from Digital Catapult’s accelerator programmes and additional support, we’re excited to continue our collaboration as we push the boundaries of what’s possible in the creator economy.”

Susan Bowen, CEO of Digital Catapult, said: “As part of our focus on supporting the best and brightest UK deep tech companies to scale, this investment further enables a breakthrough solution harnessing AI and advanced imaging technology to drive deeper innovation in the creator economy. As demand for high-quality content creation methods increases, innovative startups like Camera Intelligence deliver scalable, industry-ready solutions which empower creators and transform digital media production.”

Digital Catapult’s investment takes the form of a convertible loan note and is made available by Innovate UK to allow Catapults to invest directly in the businesses they are supporting.