When was Black Innovation founded?

Black Innovation was founded in 2015 and raised its 1st funding round 1 year after it was founded.

Where is Black Innovation located?

Black Innovation is headquartered in Carlton, Australia.

Who is the current CEO of Black Innovation?

Keaton Okkonen of Black Innovation.

How many employees does Black Innovation have?

As of Aug 31, 2026, the latest employee count at Black Innovation is 11.

Is Black Innovation a funded company?

Black Innovation is a funded company, having raised a total of $8.55M across 4 funding rounds to date. The company's 1st funding round was a $***** Grant (prize money) round, raised on 2016.

When was the latest funding round of Black Innovation?

Black Innovation's latest funding was a $***** Seed round on Jun 27, 2022, with participation from 2 investors.

Where does Black Innovation rank among its competitors?

Black Innovation ranks 33rd amongst 232 active competitors, of which 60 are funded. It stands 8th in terms of total funding among its competitors. The most recent competitor to raise funding was Standard, which secured $1M in Aug, 2026.

Who are the top competitors of Black Innovation?

Black Innovation's top competitors include Trax, RetailNext and Crisp. Among them, Standard secured the most recent funding round in August, 2026.

Black Innovation - 2026 Company Profile, Team, Funding & Competitors

Company Details

Black Innovation provides a platform for training autonomous systems. Its product, Ani, is an artificial intelligence system that can watch and understand human behavior. It automates the direct observation of people movement and flow through environments, detecting interactions and notable events, reporting them in real time.

Website: black.ai
Social
Email ID: *****@black.ai

Key Metrics

Founded Year

2015

Location

Carlton, Australia

Stage

Seed

Total Funding

$8.55M in 4 rounds

Latest Funding Round

Seed, Jun 27, 2022, $*****

Investors

Blackbird Ventures & 10 more

Ranked

33^rd among 232 active competitors

Employee Count

11 as on Aug 31, 2026

Similar Companies

Trax & 539 more

View Black Innovation's full profile

Black Innovation has raised a total funding of $8.55M over 4 rounds. Its first funding round was on 2016. Its latest funding round was a Seed round on Jun 27, 2022 for $*****. 2 investors participated in its latest round. Black Innovation has 9 institutional investors and 2 angel investors.

Here is the list of recent funding rounds of Black Innovation:

Filter this list

Date of Funding	Funding Amount	Round Name	Post-Money Valuation	Revenue Multiple	Lead Investors	Other Investors
Jun 27, 2022	7486017	Seed	5223704	8844702	5044786	3296001
Oct 04, 2018	8454220	Seed	9576751	6221727	3139441	Ben Perham & 1 more
2017	7980	Seed	8544	6460	1394	Startmate

Access funding benchmarks and valuations. Sign up today!

View details of Black Innovation's funding rounds and investors

The founders of Black Innovation are Michelle Mannering, Keaton Okkonen and Sebastien Collier.

Here are the details of Black Innovation's key team members:

Michelle Mannering: Former Co-Founder & COO of Black Innovation and founder of 1 other company.
Keaton Okkonen: CEO & Co-Founder of Black Innovation.
Contact Info: 1 email address
Sebastien Collier: Co-Founder of Black Innovation.
Contact Info: 1 email address

View details of Black Innovation's Founder profiles and Board Members

Black Innovation's employee count trend

Black Innovation has 11 employees as of Aug 26. Here is Black Innovation's employee count trend over the years:

Employee count trend for Black Innovation

Uncover Black Innovation's growth story! Sign up today!

Access Tracxn on any website

Our Google Chrome extension lets you view company details while browsing their websites

Install Tracxn Extension

Top competitors of Black Innovation include Trax, RetailNext and Crisp. Here is the list of Top 10 competitors of Black Innovation, ranked by Tracxn score:

Rank	Company Details	Short Description	Total Funding	Investors	Tracxn Score
1st	Trax 2010, Singapore (Singapore), Series E	Cloud-based data analytics solutions for retail shelf management	$1.03B	Hopu Investments, SoftBank Vision Fund & 34 others	79/100
2nd	RetailNext 2007, San Jose (United States), Series E	Provider of traffic analytics, video security, and occupancy management solutions	$232M	Activant Capital, August Capital & 17 others	68/100
3rd	Crisp 2016, New York City (United States), Series B	Platform offering business analytics software for CPG retailers and suppliers	$160M	FirstMark, 3L Capital & 30 others	66/100
4th	SPINS 1995, Chicago (United States), Series B	Provider of retail consumer analytics services	-	General Atlantic, Warburg Pincus & 3 others	62/100
5th	Hypersonix 2018, San Francisco (United States), Series B	Provider AI-powered analytics platform for consumer commerce	$50M	B Capital, Intel Capital & 8 others	60/100
6th	Standard 2017, San Francisco (United States), Series C	Platform offering AI-enabled automated checkout software solutions for offline retailers	$237M	CRV, EQT & 38 others	60/100
7th	ParallelDots 2014, Seattle (United States), Series A	Provider of image recognition software for retail execution and monitoring	$6.5M	Multipoint Capital, Btomorrow Ventures & 2 others	55/100
8th	Profitmind 2022, Pittsburgh (United States), Series A	Provider of agentic AI platform for retail decision-making and analysis	$9M	Accenture, Thorndale Farm & 3 others	52/100
9th	DemandTec 1999, San Carlos (United States), Acquired	AI-powered retail pricing platform optimizing pricing, promotions, and markdown strategies	-	Altos Ventures Management, Crosspoint Venture Partners ... & 4 others	51/100
10th	Manthan 2004, Bengaluru (India), Series D	Platform offering AI-powered prescriptive analytics applications for customer-facing businesses	$170M	Norwest, Eight Roads Ventures & 106 others	51/100
33rd	Black Innovation 2015, Carlton (Australia), Seed	Provider of a platform for training autonomous systems	$8.55M	Right Click Capital, In-Q-Tel & 9 others	40/100