The world of technology and Artificial Intelligence is growing and Keymakr has the opportunity to be part of paving its path. Keymakr’s mission is to contribute to building and shaping better technology.
Interview with Michael Abramov, CEO of Keylabs.
Easy Engineering: Could you please share a brief history of the company’s origins?
Michael Abramov: In 2015, three friends recognized an opportunity. The world of AI, particularly computer vision systems, was craving for precise yet affordable training data. With their diverse experiences in engineering, management, and strategic vision, they joined forces to create Keymakr.
Starting as a small venture, Keymakr rapidly grew, earning its place among the top ten powerhouses in data annotation. As we continued to grow, we realized something – we needed a tool. A tool that could meticulously handle vast, varied datasets.
We scoured the market, looking for something that could meet our precise needs. But there was nothing quite right. So, we did what any innovators would do – we built our own. And that’s how Keylabs was born.
Keylabs, our proprietary platform, wasn’t just built to meet our needs. It was designed with our clients in mind, crafted to tackle the demands of their most challenging projects. And it never stops improving. Day by day, we continue to refine Keylabs, ensuring it always stays ahead, ready for whatever comes next in the fast-paced world of AI.
E.E: What are the areas in which your company operates?
M.A: Keymakr and our SaaS platform, Keylabs, exist to deliver peerless performance in data labeling. Our domain of expertise encompasses image and video data annotation, data creation, data collection, and data validation.
We have a broad operational horizon that extends to all industries. This includes but is not limited to, the medical, robotics, automotive, and waste management sectors. For each case, we devise the most comprehensive and precise tool, which can range from bounding boxes and polygons to 3D point cloud annotation, skeletal annotation, data point annotation, and cuboids.
E.E: What have been the most significant projects in the company’s history?
M.A: While our commitment to privacy and security precludes us from divulging specific client names, it’s noteworthy that some of our most pivotal projects have been with our competitors. These undertakings are innately challenging, dynamic, and continually propel us towards innovation. Our success in these projects shows that we’re a trusted player in our industry. Other than that we did some remarkable things for the automotive, waste management and robotic industries.
E.E: Which projects were the most challenging?
M.A: The projects that are inherently demanding and where precision holds paramount significance, quite literally a matter of life and death, pose the greatest challenges. This typically pertains to the automotive and medical sectors. Even though substantial datasets have been collected and models trained, these industries still harbor an enormous potential for the generation of new datasets and the continuous validation of data, incorporating a human-in-the-loop approach.
E.E: What are the ranges of products and what types of services do you offer?
M.A: We are proud to showcase the robust spectrum of products and services we provide.
Image and Video Annotation: Our proprietary technology at Keymakr is engineered to execute seamless video annotation, irrespective of length and size, with a remarkable precision rate of 99.9%.
Data Collection and Data Creation: In situations where the data is non-existent, we step up to create it in our production studio.
Data Validation: Our services also extend to thorough data validation, ensuring the accuracy and quality of the collected and annotated data, thus providing an extra layer of assurance to our clients.
E.E: Which are the most innovative products / services and what special features do they have?
M.A: At Keymakr, we take pride in being at the forefront of innovative data annotation solutions. One of our flagship offerings is our advanced 3D point cloud annotation service. This service is designed to handle LiDAR datasets with impressive speed and unparalleled precision. The core of this product lies in the processing of point cloud data which constitutes the backbone of numerous applications across diverse sectors including autonomous vehicles, geospatial mapping, and robotics among others.
Our 3D point cloud annotation service leverages cutting-edge algorithms to annotate point clouds from LiDAR and radar sensors with exceptional accuracy.
But what truly sets Keymakr apart is not just our technologically advanced tools, but the synergistic blend of these tools with our in-house team of over 400 data annotation experts based in Central Europe. Our team is composed of highly skilled operators who bring a wealth of knowledge, experience, and specialized skill sets. Their technical proficiency, coupled with our state-of-the-art tools, allows us to handle complex projects with remarkable efficiency and out-of-box decisions.
Moreover, our highly responsive customer success management team is available literally 24/7.
We not only sell the tool or the team, but we also offer comprehensive solutions.
This is why giants in the automotive, waste management and medical sectors count among our clients and choose us as their exclusive supplier.
E.E: What was the research behind the products/solutions and how important is R&D?
M.A: Research and Development (R&D) is an integral pillar of our operations at Keymakr. Located in Israel, our R&D division continually pushes the boundaries of technological innovation. Our commitment to staying at the cutting edge of our field is evidenced by the regular updates we implement on our platform – a commitment that sees our platform evolve monthly at a minimum.
Our approach to research and product development is profoundly shaped by our extensive in-house team of experts. These professionals have been instrumental in executing over 500 projects since our inception. Their firsthand experience and insights into the practical aspects of data annotation and our platform’s usability are invaluable. They provide crucial feedback and identify areas for enhancement and optimization, allowing us to ensure our platform consistently meets the highest standards of functionality, efficiency, and user experience.
Moreover, our expertise extends beyond our platform. We routinely collaborate with clients on their platforms and even work alongside our competitors. This gives us a unique, broader perspective on the industry’s landscape, enabling us to analyze different tools and methodologies from various sources. Such exposure to diverse practices allows us to integrate the most effective and innovative features into our Keylabs data annotation platform.
E.E: What products / solutions are you going to launch in the future?
M.A: At Keymakr, when we contemplate the concept of ‘price’, we approach it from a non-traditional perspective. In the realm of data annotation, ‘price’ is a balance struck between the velocity of annotation and the precision of the output.
Looking ahead, our immediate objective is to integrate augmented annotation into our services. Our future product development strategy is guided by our aim to offer an optimal balance of speed, precision, and cost-effectiveness in data annotation. By harnessing the power of augmented annotation, we intend to usher in a new era of efficiency and accuracy in our services, all while retaining the vital human element in data validation processes for quality assurance.
E.E: How important are the after-sales services?
M.A: We always stay in touch with all our clients. Most of them have been staying with us for years, coming back with new challenging projects.
E.E: Tell us about social responsibility and what part does it play in the company?
M.A: At Keymakr, we take social responsibility seriously—it’s part of who we are. We’re particularly proud of our work on a whole bunch of projects in waste management.
Moreover, our broader AI projects reflect our commitment to social responsibility beyond the environmental scope. We consider AI as a tool for positive societal impact, focusing on initiatives that aim to reduce pollution and optimize resource consumption. By leveraging our technical expertise, we are a meaningful part of solutions that promote resource efficiency, conservation, and the reduction of carbon emissions.