BlueSkeye AI

Emotion AI company BlueSkeye AI began life as a spin-out of the University of Nottingham in 2019. The company specialises in human behaviour analysis using face and voice sensing Artificial Intelligence working on mobile phones and tablets. It was set up to commercialise the academic work of Professor Michel Valstar and his team in affective computing and social signal processing.

Together with co-founders Anthony “Tosh” Brown and Timur Almaev the company began life in the School of Computer Science, before moving to UNIP offices in the Geospatial Building on Triumph Road. Since then it has moved offices twice more within UNIP.

In October 2022 the company achieved a significant milestone securing £3.4 million in seed funding. This led to significant expansion and the company now employs 30 people at its offices in the Sir Colin Campbell Building. 

Explaining why his company chose UNIP, Founding CEO Professor Michel Valstar said,

“UNIP offered us the flexibility to adapt our accommodation needs to the changes in our business. They also took away some of the hassles that go with starting a new company by providing a high-quality infrastructure that we could just plug into. 

We also benefited from being on a vibrant, green University of Nottingham campus, being part of an entrepreneurial business community as well as benefiting from access to funding and potential high calibre recruits from the University of Nottingham. We still regularly collaborate with the Institute of Mental Health, the School of Computer Science and the Human Factor Research Group down the road.”