2020 was a challenging year for all of us, and we at Marinus Analytics want to thank the law enforcement, government, and non-profit frontline workers who daily work to protect the vulnerable and end systemic exploitation. During the COVID-19 pandemic we saw examples of how human trafficking and child sex trafficking persist and evolve. While the year saw the 20th anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, exploitation of the vulnerable continued, especially as the world went increasingly digital. As a small business in our 6th year of operation, we contributed to safeguarding of the vulnerable during the pandemic, and our ongoing success is a testament to our sustainability as a social impact-focused company. Despite the added complications, we saw our Traffic Jam software bring much success to sex trafficking investigations: Traffic Jam search is 60x faster than manual search and saved 70,000 hours of investigative time in 2020 alone.
To build upon this work, we released a new version of Traffic Jam in late 2020, including new features to help detectives locate underage victims and identify vast criminal networks. We were also honored in early 2021 as an IBM Watson AI XPRIZE Finalist, one of 3 companies--and the only U.S. company--competing in the global competition to build Artificial Intelligence for good and vying for a $3 million Grand Prize. We testified before Congress, briefing the U.S. House Subcommittees on Research & Technology and Investigations & Oversight on the important role of technology in countering human trafficking.
As a women-owned business, we are eager to build on our previous momentum to continue to serve the vulnerable in our society. Our new U.S. Vice President, Kamala Harris, is a champion of this cause, and we are heartened by past bipartisan efforts to sustain this fight. We enter 2021 hopeful for an elevated commitment to addressing human trafficking on the upcoming administration’s agenda. 2020 also brought us opportunities to grow the reach of our impact. We built upon these successes to include human services and cyber fraud as new verticals where we can serve society’s most pressing problems. Our team is building new tools to help social workers get actionable insights out of thousands of pages of case notes, and cyber fraud detection tools to help law enforcement uncover activity online with links to organized crime.
This new year brings opportunity. A chance to build on lessons learned. To advocate for victim-centered policing. To serve our public safety agencies in their work to disrupt sex trafficking while protecting society’s most vulnerable individuals.