Python Supercomputing Analytics Platform Bodo.ai has secured US$14 million in Series A funding led by Dell Technologies Capital. Uncorrelated Ventures, Fusion Fund and Candou Ventures also participated in the funding round.
Bodo was founded in 2019 with the idea of making Python a first-class, high-performance, and production-ready platform for complex data analytics and machine learning applications.
Python is a high-level programming language that has recently become one of the most popular for its object-oriented and structured programming, which is used to develop web applications on any server. Python is also sweeping over data science and the artificial intelligence sector, in addition to web development.
Data science involves the collection and refining of data, as well as data exploration, modeling, and visualization. For each level, Python offers a wide range of libraries that can assist data scientists in visualizing complicated issues and developing algorithmic solutions ahead.
However, according to Behzad Nasre, co-founder and CEO of Bodo.ai, Python is challenging to use when handling large-scale data. Hence together with Ehsan Totoni, CTO, they set out to make Python higher performing and production-ready. Prior to starting Bodo, Nasre had a stint in Intel. Nasre and Totoni believe that parallelization is the only way to extend Moore’s law – the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Though this allowed chipmakers to increase the amount of processing power on a chip by fitting more transistors. A higher density of transistors per chip equates to more CPU complexity and power. Moore’s law, however, is anticipated to collapse due to the physical constraints of miniaturization and the rising expenses of manufacturing new generations of processors.
Hence to counter this, scientists are employing cheaper and less complex chips in parallel architectures either by having servers with multiple processors or clustering multi-cores.
To achieve linear parallel scalability, Bodo.ai uses first preferential compiler technology, which automates parallelization so that data and ML developers do not have to utilize additional libraries, APIs, or convert Python into other programming languages or graphics processing unit code. And doing it in a fraction of the time, complexity, and cost of previous methods, all while using native Python’s simplicity and flexibility. This enables developers to attain a new level of performance and cost-efficiency for large-scale ETL, data preparation, feature engineering, and AI/ML model training.
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According to Nasre, Bodo.ai overcomes the performance-versus-simplicity divide by delivering compute performance and runtime efficiency without requiring application rewrite. Many Python developers and data scientists will be now able to do near-real-time analyses, unlocking new income opportunities for customers.
Nasre is confident that Dell Technologies Capital is uniquely positioned to assist Bodo.ai in terms of reserves and their function in the enterprise at large, which is to have the most effective salesforce.
Meanwhile, according to Daniel Docter, Managing Director, Dell Technologies Capital, businesses are employing more machine learning and data analytics to drive company insight and growth. However, with the explosive growth in data and analytics come a slew of hidden costs, including significant infrastructure investment, code rewriting, complexity, and time. Docter says, “We see Bodo.ai taking on these issues head-on, with an elegant technique that works for scale-out parallel processing in native Python. It will transform the way people think about analytics.”
For Bodo.ai, the plan is to use the funding for tripling the size of its staff and invest in R&D to grow and scale the firm. It will also be using the money for putting together a marketing and sales staff.
