Paris-based FlexAI, an AI compute firm, on Wednesday, April 24, introduced its launch with $30M (roughly €28.5M) in a seed funding spherical led by Alpha Intelligence Capital (AIC), Elaia Companions, and Heartcore Capital.
The corporate will use the funds to speed up the commercialisation of its common AI compute.
Later this yr, the corporate is planning to launch its first industrial product – an on-demand cloud service that connects builders with digital heterogeneous compute. This service will enable builders to run their workloads on numerous architectures to create and deploy AI fashions effectively and reliably.
What does FlexAI clear up?
FlexAI goals to beat the three predominant challenges that delay AI innovation:
- Restricted provide of computing energy
- Scarcity of expert professionals
- Complicated and unreliable processes for constructing and deploying AI fashions
Based and led by ex-Apple, Intel, NVIDIA, Tesla, Lifen, and Zoox veterans Brijesh Tripathi and Dali Kilani, FlexAI presents AI builders on-demand cloud service to construct and practice AI apps utilizing heterogeneous compute architectures.
“We consider in AI’s transformative energy to resolve a few of humanity’s greatest issues, however it is going to require a 1000x magnitude extra compute to have the ability to realise this imaginative and prescient,” says Brijesh Tripathi, CEO and co-founder of FlexAI.
The corporate does this by growing a brand new layer of software program intelligence, abstraction, and orchestration within the AI compute stack.
This can enable builders to make use of a number of {hardware} configurations with out having to make in depth modifications to their code.
Because of this, entry to computing sources can be expanded, AI workloads can be run extra effectively at decrease prices in comparison with conventional GPU clusters, and constructing AI functions will develop into simpler.
“The provision of AI compute at present is restricted to a choose few. Our imaginative and prescient is to unlock entry to compute for the various,” provides Tripathi.
At the moment, the corporate works with {hardware} leaders and cloud suppliers throughout the AI ecosystem, together with AMD, Amazon Internet Companies, Google Cloud, Intel, and NVIDIA, in addition to key corporations growing AI fashions and merchandise.
“AI is advancing in additional instructions than our present compute ecosystem can help,” says Jim Keller, CEO of Tenstorrent and FlexAI board member.
“FlexAI has created a novel expertise that opens entry to various compute, helps a variety of workloads, and accelerates innovation throughout the business,” provides Keller.
The corporate is backed by AIC, Elaia Companions, Bpifrance, Frst Capital, Heartcore Capital, Motier Ventures, Partech, and InstaDeep CEO, Karim Beguir.
The investor
Alpha Intelligence Capital (AIC) is an entrepreneurs-led, entrepreneurs-invested, world closed-end personal enterprise capital fund.
The VC invests in Seed to Collection B, deep Artificial Intelligence/Machine Studying (AI/ML) technology-based corporations.
The corporate focuses on groups making use of deep experience within the algorithmic sciences to develop breakthrough merchandise and clear up actual enterprise issues.
“Compute is lagging, not main, AI fashions’ more and more potent capabilities. To ship on AI’s potential, the business has to resolve the difficulty of compute prices and of stack complexity — each of which dramatically improve growth prices and time to market. Brijesh and Dali, uniquely, have the {hardware} and software program ability units to architect and construct the ecosystem for the AI compute orchestration layer,” says Antoine Blondeau, Managing Companion at Alpha Intelligence Capital.
“That is our second fund’s first funding in France. FlexAI’s selection of Paris as its headquarters illustrates the vibrancy of the French AI ecosystem, with the presence of a first-rate scientific base, world-class founders, and, more and more, entry to world capital, in flip enabling world ambitions,” provides Blondeau.