HOMEGROWN multimedia surveillance and intelligence specialist KAI Square Pte Ltd sees its technologies as contributing to the greater good of society by enhancing safety and security as well as boosting existing health care services.
The company aims to enable innovation through the use of knowledge and artificial intelligence. Ultimately, it hopes that its technologies will enhance the security, management and operations of businesses to improve the quality of life and safety of individuals.
Established in 2006 by computer science graduates Neo Shiyong and Victor Goh, both 30 years old now, KAI Square's star offering is its Juzz4 series.
The Juzz4 series includes Juzz4Security, a full-fledged Web-based surveillance solution and Juzz4Logistics, a real-time surveillance solution for the transportation and logistics industries.
KAI Square sees itself as both a business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) company, with its clientele comprising of both large corporate clients requiring intelligence and CCTV platforms as well as end-consumers looking to have high- end security at their fingertips.
It counts the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), SingHealth and fleet operators such as SMRT as some of its largest local clients.
The company has also partnered with StarHub to leverage upon the telco's bandwidth to supply end-consumers with a one-stop solution for their security needs.
KAI Square regard the many awards it has garnered during the last few years as one of its major achievements. Last September, KAI Square emerged as the winner in the infocomm local enterprise category during the inaugural Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) Awards for Juzz4Logistics.
Shortly after, it clinched the Merlion Award in the CCTV surveillance category at the opening ceremony of regional tradeshow Safety and Security Asia Exhibition and Conference in Singapore.
Mr Neo and Mr Goh were also nominated as one of 'Asia's Best Young Entrepreneurs 2009' by Business Week.
Another significant milestone for KAI Square came late last year, when it made its first overseas foray by setting up an office in Taiwan. The Taiwan office is headed by Sean Seah, a computer engineering graduate with six years of experience with start-ups under his belt and winner of international business plan competition Start-Up @ Singapore. The company then proceeded to set up another office in Beijing last month.
Explaining the rationale behind choosing to expand to these two countries, Mr Neo says, 'In Asia, governments place a lot of emphasis on security. Video surveillance is not as much of an issue, unlike in Western countries where this might be seen as an invasion of privacy.
'In Asia, people tend to value safety and security over personal privacy. In such places with high Internet and 3G usage, there will be a high demand for such surveillance solutions.'
Currently, some of KAI Square's more notable clients in China include Hua Neng Energy, which requires monitoring of its remotely located windmill power stations via 3G. Taiwan's Guo Guang Bus has also engaged the company for the monitoring and recording of its bus fleet via 3G.
The company is also currently in talks with China Mobile, the world's largest mobile-phone operator and Chung Hwa Telecom, Taiwan's largest telecommunications company about the possibility of signing memorandums of understanding (MOUs) to package their services to consumers.
Other upcoming overseas projects for the company include partnerships with the Africa and Australia Police, devising a bus monitoring system in Thailand, and a highway monitoring system in Vietnam.
As one of the 15 finalists for Emerging Enterprise 2010, KAI Square hopes to channel its prizes from the competition into research and development (R&D) for health care services.
As KAI Square currently supplies video surveillance cameras to the Ministry of Health (MOH) and real-time streaming solutions for ambulances, it aims to use its funds for the development of a centralised real-time monitoring system to track the care and treatment activities and patients' vital signs from the ambulance to the hospital's accident and emergency (A&E) departments.
This also includes features such as patient location tracking, patient fall protection and video analytics of activities in hospitals' A&E departments.
Another achievement that the company prides itself upon would be its excellent financial performance since its conception. 'We have always been a profitable company,' says Mr Neo.
During its first financial year from 2006 to 2007, the company registered a profit of $22,000. This figure escalated rapidly in the next few years. It turned in a profit of $56,000 on sales of $503,000 in financial year 2009.
In 2009, KAI Square invested more than $100,000 on an aggressive marketing campaign, which saw the company participating in roadshows with StarHub, taking part in competitions and putting up advertisements. It projects its revenue for 2010 to reach $2.2 million and its profit to be around $500,000.
KAI Square hopes to launch an initial public offering (IPO) within the next five years and also sees itself expanding to new destinations such as Africa, the Middle East, India and Russia.
It is planning to raise funds next year to facilitate its overseas expansion as well as lure qualified personnel to join its team.
'If we want to aggressively expand, we will need the capital as well as expertise in the form of talented programmers and project managers,' says Mr Neo.