Databases of sightings
In July 2022 I wrote an article about three entities engaged in the compilation of databases of sightings of UAP. One of these was an entity named Enigma Labs LLC, based in New York in the U.S.A. I have continued to update that original story as I came across items relating to Enigma Labs. Enigma Labs LLC was registered on 1 December 2020, filing number 4272722 in the state of Delaware via a registered agent named Corporation Service Company.
According to their website, Enigma Labs' mission is:
"To advance progress on UAP using cutting-edge technology and social intelligence. Only through thoughtful open-minded study of unidentified phenomena can we get answers. We are focused on building and keeping our team low profile for privacy."
Update on investors
Research, by independent scholar Jensine Andresen in 2023, located the names of two companies/individuals who provided pre-seed funding to Enigma Labs, namely FJ Labs and Kirsten Bertok Touw.
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| Enigma Labs Company Profile: Valuation, Funding & Investors | PitchBook |
A current search of other websites, eg Pitchbook shows Enigma Labs is listed under the media and entertainment market segments. It is shown as having three investors namely, FJ Labs, Kindred Ventures and Centre Street Partners.
The Enigma Labs website, under the frequently asked questions tabs, asks a question "How are you funded?" The response is:
"To date, 100% of our funding is from startup investors. These include established venture capital funds like Lux Capital, Stellation, Glosso, Haystack, Kindred, Starburst, FJ Labs and also angel investors who understand how to design and scale great consumer products, including Ryan Shea, Ryan Hoover, Balaji Srinivasan, Trevor McFedries, Elad Gil. Our investors are all US funds and citizens and are people we have known for a long time. They are collaborators who are excited about our mission of demystifying UAP and we are grateful for their support. The company was created by veteran technologists who drive the strategy and product decisions, not investors."
It is of note that a recent interview with the CEO of Enigma Labs mentions another venture capitalist, namely Josh McFarland.
On the question "What is Enigmas monitorization strategy?"
"Data: Enigma will never sell user's personal data or identities to third parties, including social networks.
Ads: When it comes to monetizing the app. we plan to avoid an ad-based business model, which we believe detracts from the user experience. We care about building a frictionless experience that users can enjoy.
Subscription: To ensure our long-term independence and viability as an organization, we intend to generate revenue. Our business model will continue to evolve, but for now we are focused on developing paid premium features and analytic tools for partners. We hope that a subset of our public users will opt in to paying for the features they find valuable to support our work."
X (former Twitter) user @Lesternare in a tweet dated 24 January 2024, raises some interesting questions concerning Enigma Labs' monitorization strategy; return to investors, and who are potential paying customers?
Progress
How is Enigma Labs progressing? They have launched an app for iphones which can be used to collect data on UAP sightings made by individuals using a smartphone. As at 15 December 2023 they report having received and processed over 12,000 sightings, submitted both through that app, and via their website; between February and December 2023 and provided an analysis of these.
The sightings analysis is based on self-reporting from individuals. "Enigma did not independently verify each sighting." The sightings are global in nature from 107 different countries including 2% from Australia. Enigma calculates what it calls "The Enigma score."
"This can help us to further analyze anomalousness, though the methodology of scoring continues to be regularly refined. Note that the score is a composite of both certainty around the sighting event, as well as how anomalous the object behavior was."
The Company continues to grow the number of employees. Pitchbook shows 13 at the moment. Current job openings are for a "Content Moderator Intern" paying $20/hr part-time and a "Director of Engineering" paying $200-300K full-time.
The CEO of Enigma speaks out
Given the secrecy which has surrounded most members of the Enigma Labs team; it was of note that The New Yorker Magazine, dated 22 January 2024, published an article by Matthew Hutson about Enigma Labs titled "The truth is out there, on an app."
It includes quotes from the CEO of Enigma Labs, who refers to herself only a "A." The reason for the pseudonym is given as 'It has allowed me to really focus...because there's so much noise out there. The internet is full of keyboard warriors."
A description of how the app functions is given, and "A" says she expects to inspire a growing movement.
"It's no different from people who go to burning man or are into wellness, meditation, yoga or psychedelics, all that stuff...what we're really banking on is this movement that I think SpaceX, the Webb telescope, all of this, is driving, which is just as interesting - Are we alone."
As to assigning a cause to submitted sightings they "...decided not to mark cases on the app as resolved (when say the U.A.P. is clearly a balloon); they won't harsh anyone's buzz." The article concludes with:
" Employees keep their levels of belief to themselves. A isn’t interested in trying to explain stubborn U.A.P. cases; she’s happy to entertain the possibility of ancient aliens, future humans, advanced fighters, billionaires’ antigravity toys, multidimensional projections, or humdrum drones. “U.A.P. is a new field,” she said. “It can’t be a category until you have data to work with. We’re doing the picks and shovels of that. And hopefully we’ll empower a lot of people to come up with their own theories. We’ll leave that to the Nobel Prize winners.”
Update: 7 April 2024
One item I missed in doing the article above was the relationship between Enigma Labs and the Swedish Archives for the Unexplained (AFU.) On 22 January 2023 "AFU Sponsor News #2" dated January 2023 carried the following announcement.
"Enigma Labs project to digitise reports archives.
AFU Chairman Clas Svehn has negotiated and signed a contract with US Company Enigma Labs - https://enigmalabs.io whereby Archives for the Unexplained (AFU) provides digital copies from our rich report archives from many countries. We have started out with the Spanish report files once received from CEI Barcelona. The idea is to create an international UAP (UFO) reporting site that also has in the background a rich database of recorded sightings. These previous sightings will be anonymized by Enigma Labs and translated into English with the help of advanced AI software.
Leif Astrend at AFU will spend the coming year (2023) working for the project assisted by others from the AFU staff, preparing world-wide files for digitizing."
Update: 9 December 2024
Yet another database and UAP sightings collection system is announced.
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