Artificial Intelligence Startup Fractal Weighs IPO As Pandemic Accelerates Growth

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July 16, 2021

Artificial Intelligence Startup Fractal Weighs IPO As Pandemic Accelerates Growth

India-based startup Fractal Analytics is planning for an initial public offering (IPO) to increase its growth. The current pandemic has changed the working system of many companies as now enterprises and shifting to cloud-based solutions, which has helped data service providers a massive boost in their growth.

The CEO and co-founder of Fractal Analytics, Shrikanth Velamakanni, said that the startup has already received a funding of $325 million from several investors, including Apax Partners, and he expects that the company would soon raise a capital of $1 billion shortly.

Velamakanni said, “The floodgates have opened. We have the scale to be a public company. The firm expects its revenue to increase by 37% by the year 2022 if things go according to its plan.

Fractal Analytics was founded by Velamakanni, Pranay Agarwal, Nirmal Palaparthi, Pradeep Suryanarayan, and Ramakrishna Reddy in 2002. The first office was opened in Mumbai but now has its headquarters in New York.

The company provides artificial intelligence-powered services for consumer goods, healthcare, financial, technology, and insurance industries. Industry-leading companies like Google, Reckitt Benckiser Group, and Wells Fargo use Fractal’s services.

The startup is currently developing a new technology, Crux Intelligence, that would use machine learning and natural language processing to enable its clients to gather business data, analyze them, and seamlessly convert them into action.

Kathy Leake, Head of the Crux Intelligence team, said, “It’s like the Siri or Google Assistant for businesses. Customers can query in simple language and have data analysis and personalized business insights at their fingertips.” The company has many more projects in its pipeline such as Eugenie.ai, Qure.ai, and Theremin.ai

Hyundai Motor To Pilot Autonomous RoboShuttle Service In South Korea

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 16, 2021

Hyundai Motor To Pilot Autonomous RoboShuttle Service In South Korea

Car manufacturing giant Hyundai Motors has recently announced that it would pilot autonomous demand-responsive RoboShuttles in South Korea from 9th August 2021. Hyundai’s Roboshutts uses artificial intelligence-powered autonomous driving technology.

The initial service area is a 6.1km specific route with twenty stops from Government Complex to National Arboretum in Sejong City, South Korea. The vehicle is capable of analyzing its surroundings and making decisions about its movement. According to the company, very minimal human intervention is needed to drive these RoboShuttles.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport recently issued permission of autonomous driving level 3 to allow Hyundai to temporarily operate the self-driving shuttle from 9th August to 30th September 2021.

The company’s engineers at their Driving Center have renovated its H350 light commercial vehicle and have equipped it with Level-4 comparable core autonomous driving technology. Passengers have to register on the Shucle smartphone application in order to enjoy Hyundai’s RoboShuttle service.

Shucle is a demand-responsive transportation solution to be launched in South Korea. It has been developed by Hyundai’s specialized artificial intelligence research company AIRS to offer mobility services to the public. The taxi will then automatically reach the assigned pick-up location using artificial intelligence algorithms and will stop only at fixed drop points.

The carmaker has already signed a memorandum of understanding with the city’s government authorities on 12th July to eliminate any risk of hindrance while carrying out its operations. Hyundai plans to expand its service to various parts of the country after successfully completing its launch in Sejong Smart City.

The company plans to collaborate with Kia Namyang Research and Development center to further improve its RoboShuttle technology by the end of this year.

AWS Launched Its First Public Sector Startup Ramp In India

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 15, 2021

AWS Launched Its First Public Sector Startup Ramp In India

Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently announced that it had launched India’s first public sector startup ramp. This platform will enable small-scale based businesses in the field of science, technology, healthcare, defense, and government to develop solutions easily.

Addressing the demand for new innovations in the public sector, Amazon has come up with this startup ramp project that would provide all the necessary tools to a startup to overcome common challenges.

Vice President of public sector partners and programs at AWS, Sandy Carter, said, “We are excited to launch the AWS Startup Ramp in India where there is an incredible opportunity for startups to solve public sector challenges through their innovative solutions. This global initiative is a critical way for us to support startups who are using technology to change the world.”

Amazon officials said that India is the first country where this project is being launched. The company plans to support and grow public sector startups with this unique initiative. AWS Startup Ramp is divided into two tiers –

Innovator tier for pre-revenue startups
Member tier for post-revenue startups with revenue up to ₹100 crores

Startups can now start applying for either of the tiers on AWS’ official website, depending on their status. AWS Startup Ramp’s team will screen the applicants on the basis of their potential contributions to the public sector.

President of public sector AISPL, AWS South Asia and India, Rahul Sharma, said, “Our experience in India has shown that public sector organizations are increasingly keen to experiment with new ideas and technologies to advance their missions at speed and scale. Startups bring disruptive innovative solutions that create broad impact, and can pivot quickly to meet society’s changing needs.”

QpiAI Launched A New Quantum Marketplace

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 15, 2021

QpiAI Launched A New Quantum Marketplace

CEO of QpiAI, Dr. Nagendra Nagaraja, recently announced that they had launched a new global AI and quantum marketplace. With this new launch, the company aims to increase the adoption of artificial intelligence technologies across various industries in the world.

QpiAI is a Bengaluru-based startup that specializes in developing artificial intelligence systems for healthcare, finance, space science, life science, and transportation industries. With the help of its highly experienced team of 30 engineers, QpiAI’s platform is capable of increasing data insight efficiency and also generating new usable data.

The company has now opened registrations for its new quantum marketplace on its website. Enterprises can now easily visit their official website and get early access to QpiAI’s services.

The company expects to have more than a hundred buyers and a million sellers on their quantum marketplace in a span of one year. Earlier, QpiAI had collaborated with the Indian Institute of Science to launch a certification program on artificial intelligence and quantum skills for students.

The company has now announced that the certification program’s first batch’s best students will be the solution providers for this new platform. The students who will score more than 90% will be able to sell their artificial intelligence models, services, and quantum solutions on the marketplace.

The results of the certification program will be declared by November 2021. The certification program has already received more than ten thousand registrations in the past two months.

The marketplace will enable companies to compare and buy artificial intelligence models through a single transparent platform. Experts predict that the QpiAI marketplace will host the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence communities.

All the available artificial intelligence models will be screened by QpiAI’s qualifiers tool, which would examine the safety, explainability, and transparency of the models before putting them live for sale. The marketplace will also have a legal framework to ensure the security of the buyers and sellers.

The US Department of Defence Plans To Invest $1.5 Billion On Artificial Intelligence Centers

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 15, 2021

The US Department of Defence Plans To Invest $1.5 Billion On Artificial Intelligence Centers

The US Department of Defence recently announced its plans to inventest $1.5 billion on joint artificial intelligence centers across the country. Justin Lloyd, the Secretary of Defence, said that the department will invest the amount over the next five years to develop artificial intelligence centers that would help the US army to strategic advantages in the future.

According to the country’s latest budget, the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) project will be allotted $200 million per year, which is believed to be increased to $300 million shortly.

Austin said, “Done responsibly, leadership in artificial intelligence can boost our future military technology advantage — from data-driven decisions to human-machine teaming. That could make the Pentagon of the near future dramatically more effective, more agile, and more ready.”

The Department of Defence is focusing on JAIC to build more than 600 centers in the coming years. DoD also plans to work intensively on the Joint Common Foundations project, which they believe will be the future platform for the US army to work on artificial intelligence projects.

The country’s defense department aims to adopt artificial intelligence in every operation, which they call ‘Integrated Deterrence.’ They believe that this absorption of artificial intelligence in their daily tasks would allow the department to complete their operations quickly and would allow them to make accurate data-driven decisions on the battlefields and in the office.

“In today’s world, in today’s department, innovation cannot be an afterthought. It is a ballgame. Artificial intelligence and related technologies will give us both an information and an operational edge,” said Austin.
The DoD is also working on a project, Rapid Defence Experimentation Reserve (RDER), which would help the Pentagon integrate artificial intelligence into its operations rapidly and develop cutting-edge technologies to support the soldiers on the battlefields.

Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Announced A $50 Million Project For Research In AI And Cybersecurity

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 15, 2021

Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Announced A $50 Million Project For Research in Artificial Intelligence And Cybersecurity

Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Swee Keat recently announced the launch of a $50 million project for advanced research in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and 5G testbeds.

This project aims to develop new 5G testbeds and advanced artificial intelligence-powered communication network infrastructures to build a strong communication network in the country considering future requirements. This project falls under the umbrella of the country’s Future Communications Research and Development Program.

“Just as globalization drove decades of economic growth around the world, I believe the fast growing digital economy can propel us to a better future,” said Swee Keat launching the program. The government wants to build a complete 5G network coverage in the country by 2025.

Coursera recently published a global skill index where Singapore was praised for its investment in artificial intelligence and data science industries. Experts suggest that this new project was designed because the report mentioned that the countries intensively investing in technology will have a technically sound workforce in the future.

The country also plans to launch a new digital exchange platform, the Singapore Trade Data Exchange (SGTraDex). This platform will enable individuals of various industries to share real-time data in an end-to-end encrypted manner.

Keat said, “From the pilots so far, SGTraDex has the potential to unlock more than $150 million of value annually for the supply chain ecosystem.” He further added that this initiative would also considerably reduce the time consumed in customs clearance, insurance, trade financing, and many other tasks.

Earlier this year, Singapore announced the launch of its artificial intelligence program (AISG), where the government had partnered with Google Cloud to provide the country’s talented engineers a practical experience in the artificial intelligence industry.

Quantexa Raised $153 Million In Its Series D Funding Led By Warburg Pincus

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 15, 2021

Quantexa Raised $153 Million In Its Series D Funding Led By Warburg Pincus

Quantexa recently raised $153 million in its series D funding round led by Warburg Pincus. Many other enterprises participated in the funding, like AlbionVC, HSBC, Dawn Capitals, Evolution Equity Partners, British Patient Capitals, and ABN Amro Ventures.

Last year in the company’s series C funding, it had raised $67.4 million. Quantexa witnessed a growth of 108% in the year 2020-2021, increasing its market valuation to nearly $900 million. Officials expect to reach unicorn status in the near future. The company plans to use this fresh funding to expand to other regional markets, public sector and develop various other security software.

Quantexa is a United Kingdom-based firm that provides a Contextual Decision Intelligence platform. Their software is capable of detecting all sorts of money laundering, credit card frauds, and other financial crimes and also helps companies to manage data effectively. Most of the popular banks in the UK, like HSBC and Standard Chartered bank, use Quantexa’s platform to identify fraudulent activities.

Founder and CEO of Quantexa, Vishal Marria, said, “We’ve diversified outside of financial services and working with government, healthcare, telcos, and insurance.” He further added that the increasing demand for data security software across various industries excites him the most.

The company has now spread across the globe, having branches in countries like the United States, Australia, Singapore, and Canada. Vishal Marria also said that the company is open to acquisitions in order to expand further.

Managing director and co-head of Warburg Europe division, Adarsh Sharma, said, “Quantexa’s proprietary technology enables clients to create single views of individuals and entities, visualized through graph network analytics and scaled with the most advanced artificial intelligence technology.”

Zoominfo Acquired Chorus.ai To Deliver Conversational Intelligence Through Its New Platform

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 15, 2021

Zoominfo Acquited Chorus.ai To Deliver Conversational Intelligence Through Its New Platform

Washington-based software company Zoominfo recently announced that it had acquired an industry-leading artificial intelligence company Chorus.ai to deliver conversational intelligence through its advanced go-to-market platform.

This new acquisition has increased Zoominfo’s market valuation to $70 billion. A $575 million deal was cracked between the two companies, which resulted in the acquisition of Chorus.ai.

Earlier, Zoominfo also acquired a data intelligence startup Clickagy to launch its new streaming platform.

Chorus.ai is a San Francisco-based startup founded in 2015 that specializes in conversational intelligence. Through its artificial intelligence-powered platform, the company helps its clients to effectively train their sales teams based on the analytical data provided by the platform after scrutinizing best performing sales meetings.

The founder and CEO of Zoominfo, Henry Schuck, said, “The acquisition of Chorus will accelerate our vision to deliver a modern go-to-market platform that brings together best-in-class intelligence with comprehensive data management, workflow, and engagement software, empowering companies to execute their revenue-generating strategies effectively.”

He further added that with the industry’s most extensive conversational intelligence portfolio, Chorus.ai would aid Zoominfo to expand by providing new insight categories and allowing higher target engagement.

The integration of the two platforms will enable its clients to make accurate decisions based on data analytics, which would help them increase their sales revenue. The CEO of Chorus.ai, Jim Benton, will be joining Zoominfo as the senior vice president of emerging products.

He said, “ZoomInfo has a bold vision of delivering a world-class go-to-market platform that empowers companies to drive better execution and more revenue.”

He also mentioned that Chorus.ai would play a significant role in delivering artificial intelligence-driven insights based on interaction with customers and prospects. This will help the merged company to tap into a new source of data generation.

Microsoft To Acquire Cybersecurity Company RiskIQ For $500 Million

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 14, 2021

Microsoft To Acquire Cybersecurity Company RiskIQ For $500 Million

Microsoft recently confirmed that it will acquire a cybersecurity company RiskIQ for $500 million. The company has been an industry leader in delivering internet security solutions with its products like Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Azure Sentinel, and Microsoft Azure Defender.

By acquiring RiskIQ, the tech giant wants to strengthen its security systems further to provide its customers an enhanced digital safety against increasing cyber threats. RiskIQ is a San Francisco-based cybersecurity firm founded in 2009 by Elias Manousos, David Pon, and Chris Keirnan. It provides cloud-based digital security services to its clients across various platforms like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Cloud, and many more.

The company developed a unique security auditing engine that automatically finds out any security loopholes and maps them out. RiskIQ’s researchers use machine learning to analyze global security threats collected from the internet using its crowdsourced Passive Total community.

RiskIQ has a vast customer base that includes enterprises like Facebook, American Express, BMW AG, and lots more. Utilizing RiskIQ’s experience, Microsoft aims to identify cyber threats at an early stage and neutralize them before they infect users’ systems.

CEO of RiskIQ, Elias Manousos, said, “The vision and mission of RiskIQ is to provide unmatched internet visibility and insights to better protect and inform our customers and partners’ security programs. We’re thrilled to add RiskIQ’s Attack Surface and Threat Intelligence solutions to the Microsoft Security portfolio, extending and accelerating our impact. Our combined capabilities will enable best-in-class protection, investigations, and response against today’s threats.”

According to sources, Microsoft is planning to integrate RiskIQ’s platform with its Azure cloud services to provide better cybersecurity to its customers. Earlier, Microsoft had acquired several other cybersecurity firms like CyberX and Refirm Labs to improve its Azure IoT platform.

Taoiseach And Minister Troy Launch Government Roadmap For Artificial Intelligence In Ireland

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 14, 2021

Taoiseach And Minister Troy Launch Government Roadmap For Artificial Intelligence In Ireland

Ireland recently announced the launch of its first National Artificial Intelligence Strategy under the supervision of Robert Troy.

The new strategy plans to drastically improve the country’s artificial intelligence services in the next five years by developing new methods for addressing local challenges and delivering better public services utilizing the power of artificial intelligence.

The strategy will also focus on the ethical use of artificial intelligence to help public services and businesses to grow. The government aims to create a supportive innovation ecosystem to let industries adopt artificial intelligence services. Experts suggest that this bold move of the government will considerably boost the country’s economy.

Robert Troy, Digital and Company Regulation, and State for Trade Promotion Minister of Ireland said, “Artificial Intelligence is all around us and already changing how we learn, work and live: from how we shop and bank online, to how we use the apps on our phones.”

He further added that this initiative would require support from the public in order to truly embrace the benefits of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is helping the country to address many crucial issues like climate action, public health, education, and many more. According to Troy, this is the correct time to put a coherent approach to artificial intelligence in a transparent manner to build public trust in artificial intelligence.

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland, Micheál Martin, said, “This Artificial Intelligence Strategy presents a framework for achieving this across enterprises and the public sector, including through skills, infrastructure, and appropriate governance.”

The National Strategy mentions the appointment of a new Artificial Intelligence Ambassador along with many other vital decisions like the commencement of a new artificial intelligence program for businesses to provide advisory measures of artificial intelligence absorption, increasing the availability of open government data, and many more. The government also plans to build a secure data framework for the private sector.