BeyondMinds, which already services Microsoft, Samsung, to use funds from Marius Nacht and Grove Ventures to further expand in global market
TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BeyondMinds, an artificial intelligence startup developing a universally applicable and easily adaptable AI solution, has raised $15 million co-led by leading Israeli venture capital fund Grove Ventures and private investor Marius Nacht. The infusion of funds will finance its global expansion and the ongoing development of its innovative AI solution, and strengthen its management team with prominent executives. BeyondMinds is accelerating the wide-scale adoption of AI by enabling companies to successfully overcome the challenges that have prevented AI from proceeding "beyond" theoretical proof-of-concept exercises to robust and resilient deployments.
BeyondMinds, which already boasts a significant customer base including Microsoft, Samsung, KPMG, and numerous leading defense companies and financial institutions, will offer its "AI as a Service" solution to assist more Fortune 1000 companies in the development, launch, and ongoing maintenance of their AI infrastructure.
With 87% of AI projects failing to reach production, according to Venturebeat, due to a failure to overcome real-world challenges, BeyondMinds' solution aims to flip that success rate. Its robust, end-to-end AI platform is constructed on a universal, modular technology stack that enables easy customization of specific AI applications. Unlike off-the-shelf AI models or systems developed in-house that often fail, BeyondMinds takes a new approach, stabilizing AI solutions in production where the data is dynamic and noisy, and deploying trust, monitoring, and feedback technologies to achieve increasing value over time. Typical applications include defect detection and predictive maintenance in manufacturing, fraud detection, insurance claim automation, risk assessment, underwriting in the financial services industry and numerous additional use cases where AI is traditionally applied to solve core business problems.
"We are achieving wide-market adoption with a relentless focus on production. We are excited by the breakthroughs being made on the academic level and have created an enterprise grade, scalable AI architecture to ensure production systems deliver business value from day one through day forever," said Rotem Alaluf, the 30-year-old co-founder and CEO of BeyondMinds.
Alaluf, a deep learning specialist and graduate of Israel's respected Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, co-founded the company in 2018 with a seed investment from Prof. Ehud Weinstein and Dr. Ofir Shalvi who are responsible for some of Israel's most impressive exits including acquisitions by Apple and Texas Instruments.
"Grove Ventures is excited to co-lead the round and partner with BeyondMinds and its incredibly strong team of brilliant minds," said Lotan Levkowitz, General Partner at Grove Ventures. "In recent years, we are monitoring AI innovation closely and the implications it will have on growing organizations. BeyondMinds' technology is already gaining traction with some of the world's largest companies, solving the most complex AI challenges for their customers as they successfully scale AI and gain a competitive edge."
"We are happy to join and help the exceptional team at BeyondMinds to scale their business, and are excited to see how their innovative AI technology, groundbreaking approach and vision positively influence companies throughout their AI transformation." said Ophir Shoham, former Director of Defense R&D Directorate at the Israeli Ministry of Defense (MAFAT) who co-led the round on behalf of Marius Nacht. "BeyondMinds will help scores of companies attain the promise of AI, strengthen their business models, and dominate their categories."
As part of the expansion, BeyondMinds plans to invest significant efforts in supporting broad-scale adoption of AI in the US market with the help of its newly strengthened executive team, including:
- Chief Revenue Officer Ted Ranft, who is based in New York, will lead the worldwide sales expansion. He is a 25-year veteran of technology and software sales who has previously scaled businesses from $1.5M to $1.2B in annual sales including Unqork, AviNetworks, ServiceMax and VMware.
- Perry Fetterman, also based in New York, is the Regional VP, Americas. He was previously the general manager of Americas of Kaltura, a leading open source video platform, and director of sales and customer success, America, at Evernote, a maker of team-building apps.
- Chief Marketing Officer Sharon Reisner, based in Tel Aviv, has led marketing at a range of Israeli startups, including Tremor Video, a global leader in advertising technologies, and Conduit, the cloud-based technology provider that became Israel's first billion-dollar internet company.
About BeyondMinds
BeyondMinds has built the first enterprise AI system that is universally applicable and easily adaptable. We deliver hyper-customized, production-ready deployments that enable sophisticated companies to overcome the massive 87% failure rate in AI adoption and rapidly implement ROI-positive transformations. Founded in 2018, the company has offices in Tel Aviv, New York and London and services Fortune 1000 companies including Microsoft and Samsung. beyondminds.ai
For more information: Ryan@beyondminds.ai
