Orchestra has deployed 100+ AI cameras across San Francisco while raising seed funding, but lacks required city surveillance approvals and documented investors.

Orchestra, a 10-month-old startup, has installed more than 100 street-facing cameras across San Francisco while seeking a $2 million pre-seed round. The cameras provide live coverage of SoMa, the Tenderloin, North Beach and the Marina, with plans to add 900 more units across the city's commercial corridors in the next six months, according to Business Insider.

The company, led by CEO Drake Burciaga and COO Stephania Stavropoulos, pitches the network as "a search engine for the physical world" using AI to convert video into structured data for police, insurance, and autonomous vehicle companies. Orchestra claims it doesn't use facial recognition and blurs faces, identifying people by clothing and shoes instead.

Despite the extensive deployment, Orchestra doesn't appear on San Francisco's required surveillance technology inventory and lacks the city's 19B policy approvals needed for surveillance contracts, per city records. The company reports raising $550,000 from 13 angel investors but has no SEC Form D listing specific investors or amounts.

The rollout comes as 50 cities and counties have canceled contracts with Flock Safety amid privacy concerns about AI-enabled surveillance networks. Orchestra says it restricts access to raw footage and is exploring blockchain-based access logging, but currently operates without municipal oversight or confirmed customers.