When Roanne Monte returned to Sydney during the pandemic after more than three decades abroad, she did not expect to become a victim of stalking. The software engineer was living alone, awaiting the arrival of her husband from New York when she found herself being surveilled by a security officer who worked for a co-working space across from her home.
“Practically every time I stepped out of my home, he would be there in his car not wearing a uniform—effectively off duty, just watching me,” she told Women’s Agenda. “I informed the business, emailed them multiple times, but they did nothing.”
Monte went to the police, but they could not help.
“They asked me if I thought my life was in danger,” Monte said. “They did not seem interested.”
Monte described the ordeal as the lowest point in her life. She had trouble sleeping, frequently going to bed at 5am and drinking coffee to stay alert.
“There was something about being so targeted, all while seeing the stalker gloat by seeing me fearful and intimidated,” she said.
Monte vacillated from feeling severe fear to convincing herself that she would be okay. When she was in the fighting spirit, she began to strategise a way to get evidence through video, since according to her, it seemed to be the only way the police was going to assist her.
In Australia, one in five women aged 15 or older have been stalked, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed last October. Roughly 2.7 million Australians said they have been stalked, with women being eight times more likely to be stalked by a man than a woman.
Rather than staying in fear, Monte turned her attention toward solving the broader problem of security gaps and studying the security industry.
Despite being told by a lawyer she had a feasible legal case, Monte decided to focus her energy on solving the industry’s problems.
“I figured even if I win the case, it would only be a win for me,” she explained. “But if I solve systemic problems, it would be a win for more people. I wanted to solve systemic security problems, not just win my case.”
As a student, Monte studied Computer Science with a minor in Psychology at Harvard and has a Master’s at Cornell Law. She began her career in software consulting, later moving to product work.
“The most important lessons I took from both institutions were not just technical or legal but about how to solve real-world problems with precision and impact,” she said of her education.
In her effort to empower other victims of stalking, she began creating the algorithms of how data can be contextualised, and reached out to Sy Laga’aia, a security expert specialising in Close Personal Protection (CPP).
Gradually, Monte began to sketch the architecture of a new platform which she would eventually call Ro&™.
Launched through the deep-tech company she co-founded, Armatec Global, Ro&™ is the latest video intelligence program that can sift through hundreds of hours of footage to locate specific visual information at a fraction of the price for both consumers and businesses.
While traditional video surveillance requires constant monitoring and continuous human oversight, the platform offers AI-native retrospective video intelligence that can analyse past video footage to extract critical insights without the need for users to watch hours of video, thus eliminating common errors in manual surveillance induced by fatigue.
Ro&™ is an agnostic device, meaning users do not need to purchase expensive hardware to use the platform—they can use what they have provided their cameras are not outdated. Users can unlock advanced video intelligence instantly, pinpointing specific incidents after which they can review the result and then receive a report.
“Retrospective video intelligence analyses recorded video data to identify specific events, objects, or patterns,” Monte explained. “Our enterprise implementations involve a customised version of the platform that is specific to the requirements of an organisation’s use. This can involve multi-site analysis, advanced anomaly detection, and compliance audits, among others.”
The company has managed to bring their AI-native enterprise-grade turnkey SaaS platform to market for less than $1 million, and currently, the product is being used in twenty countries, including US and Australia.
“Unlike traditional security solutions that retrofit AI onto legacy architectures, Ro&™ was built from the ground up as an AI-native platform,” Monte said. “This design ensures sophisticated retrospective video intelligence without requiring expensive compute resources or specialised technical expertise.”
“Security technology has historically been costly, complex, and slow to deploy. Ro&™ eliminates these barriers. With zero deployment time and a highly scalable AI-native architecture, we enable organisations to access enterprise-grade security capabilities immediately—without costly infrastructure investments. This is security intelligence, redefined for accessibility and capital efficiency.”
The platform’s technical co-founder, Alan Ambron said that while AI adoption can be hindered by high infrastructure costs and scalability challenges, Ro&™ uses an AI-native approach, which optimises processing efficiency.
“Ro&™ delivers enterprise-grade analysis at a fraction of the cost of traditional AI-powered solutions,” he explained. “This capital-efficient model allows us to scale globally without the heavy operational overhead that typically constrains AI security firms.”
Monte and her team are now working to build more features into the product.
“I hope the [it] will empower individuals and businesses,” she said. “I hope to democratise advanced tech that is usually only reserved for those who can afford it. Now, it is available for everyone.”