SENAI Raises $6.2M Seed to Build the Global Standard for Online Video Intelligence

Washington, D.C.-based SENAI has raised $6.2 million in seed funding as it works to formalize a new intelligence discipline built for a video-first internet. The round was led by 10D Ventures, with participation from FS Ventures, 1948 Ventures, and a group of strategic global investors, including Jonathan Kolber.

The funding comes as governments and security agencies face a growing reality: the earliest signals of unfolding crises increasingly appear not in reports or briefings, but in short, fragmented videos posted online—often minutes or hours before any official confirmation exists.

When Video Becomes the First Signal

Online video has quietly become one of the most powerful—and difficult—sources of intelligence. Footage from protests, attacks, or influence campaigns often surfaces in real time on social platforms, uploaded by individuals on the ground. While this flood of video can provide early visibility into emerging events, it also creates an overwhelming analytical burden.

The sheer volume of uploads makes continuous human monitoring impractical. Even with platform moderation and automated flagging in place, analysts are often left reacting after content has already spread widely. This delay can mean lost evidence, missed context, or slow responses during fast-moving situations.

SENAI was founded to address this gap, treating online video not as isolated clips, but as a core intelligence signal that can be analyzed systematically and at scale.

Defining Online Video Intelligence (OVINT)

Less than a year old, SENAI has coined the term Online Video Intelligence (OVINT) to describe a new approach to intelligence gathering focused specifically on video-first environments. Rather than relying on manual review or post-event analysis, the platform is designed to ingest vast amounts of unstructured video and transform it into structured, actionable insight.

At the technical level, SENAI combines computer vision, audio analysis, language understanding, and geospatial inference. Together, these systems help answer fundamental intelligence questions in real time: what is happening, where it is happening, and how narratives are evolving across platforms and borders.

The result is situational awareness built from open-source video—one that evolves as events unfold, rather than after the fact.

Proven in Live, High-Risk Environments

While many early-stage AI companies remain in pilot mode, SENAI has already operated in live deployments with government agencies across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. These engagements have tested the platform under conditions where speed and accuracy matter most.

In one case, SENAI supported a European authority during a large-scale outbreak of violence in a major capital. By tracking and mapping relevant online videos in real time, the platform helped provide a live operational picture of key actors and shifting dynamics. Crucially, it enabled teams to preserve and analyze evidence before videos were removed from social platforms.

In another recent deployment, SENAI analyzed a coordinated online video campaign linked to suspected Russian influence activity. The system flagged manipulated and AI-generated clips while uncovering coordinated account behavior, demonstrating how video intelligence can play a role in countering modern information operations.

Beyond Government: A Dual-Use Platform

Government and intelligence agencies remain SENAI’s primary focus, but the company’s architecture has been designed with dual-use potential in mind. As enterprises face increasing exposure to video-driven reputational risk, crisis events, and coordinated misinformation campaigns, interest from the private sector has begun to grow.

SENAI has already closed a deal with a U.S.-based enterprise customer, signaling early demand beyond the public sector. The company plans to expand its enterprise offering in 2026, adapting its intelligence capabilities for commercial risk and monitoring use cases.

Leadership and Strategic Direction

SENAI is led by a team with deep experience across intelligence and security domains. The company recently appointed Michel Berdah as Chief Revenue Officer and Partner, adding senior leadership to support expansion as deployments increase.

According to CEO and co-founder David Allouche-Levinsky, the platform was built to help decision-makers respond earlier in an environment where video increasingly shapes perception, influence, and real-world outcomes. Rather than chasing misinformation after it spreads, the goal is to intervene while narratives are still forming.

Investors backing the seed round pointed to SENAI’s operational focus and execution in real-world settings as a key differentiator, particularly at a reminder that many companies in the space remain experimental.

The Broader Implications of Video-First Intelligence

SENAI’s rise highlights a broader shift underway in national security and risk analysis. As video becomes the dominant format through which events are documented and shared, intelligence workflows built for text and signals alone are no longer sufficient.

Online Video Intelligence represents a structural change in how open-source information is treated: video is no longer just illustrative content, but a primary source of evidence and early warning. As AI-generated and manipulated footage becomes more common, the ability to contextualize, verify, and map video at scale will likely become a baseline requirement rather than a specialized capability.

In the years ahead, platforms like SENAI’s may play a defining role in how governments, agencies, and enterprises navigate a world where the first draft of history is increasingly visual—and increasingly contested.