Austrian synthetic data startup Mostly AI has raised a $25 million Series B round. The operation was led by British VC firm Molten Ventures. 42CAP and Earlybird, which led the $5 million Series A round in 2020, returned.
Artificial intelligence is used to achieve a high degree of fidelity to its clients' databases. The company says its data sets look just as real as a company's original customer data with just as many details.
The CEO of Mostly Artificial said that the company plans to use the proceeds to push the boundaries of what its product can do, grow its team, and gain more customers in Europe and the US.
The General Data Protection Regulation was implemented across the EU one year after MostLY AI was founded. The rise of machine learning and the demand for privacy-preserving solutions have created a lot of steam for synthetic data. By the year 2024, 80% of the data used for the development of analytics will be synthetically genoerated.
Fortune 100 banks and insurers are the most common clients of Artificial Intelligence. Most of the demand for synthetic tabular data is driven by healthcare.
Mostly Artificial doesn't put its focus on healthcare in the past, but it could change. The CEO said that they are starting some pilot projects this year.
The democratization of artificial intelligence means that synthetic data will eventually be used beyond Fortune 100 companies, according to Hann. His company plans to serve a wide range of sectors in the future. It made sense to focus on enterprise-level clients.
Hann said that enterprise companies have the budgets, need and sophistication to work with synthetic data. To match their expectations, mostly artificial obtained ISO certifications.
While the startup has a solid technical footing, it is equally invested in the commercialization of its technology and in the business value it can add for its clients. The investment director of Molten Ventures said that mostly artificial intelligence is leading this emerging and rapidly-growing space in terms of both customer deployment and expertise.
The need to comply with privacy laws such as theGDPR andCCPA drives demand for synthetic data, but it is not the only factor at play. Demand in Europe is driven by a wider cultural context, while in the U.S. it is driven by a desire to innovate. Data that can be traced back to specific users is not included in use cases.
Hann said that many companies are approaching the space because they understand that customers value privacy. Companies that deal with data in a privacy-preserving way can gain a competitive advantage.
Seeing more U.S. companies wanting to adopt synthetic data in innovative ways is the main reason why Mostly Artificial wants to grow its team in the U.S. The company plans to increase its staff from 35 to 65 by the end of the year.
Hann expects synthetic data to take off in the year 2022. Demand for responsible artificial intelligence will be supported by key concepts such as fairness and explainability. Synthetic data can answer these challenges. Hann said that it enables enterprises to de-bias their data sets.
Artificial intelligence sees a lot of potential for synthetic data to be used in software testing. Synthetic data needs to be accessible to both data scientists and software engineers. It is with them in mind that mostly artificial came up with version 2.0 of its platform a few months ago. The company said that most of the technology can be implemented on premise or in a private cloud.
Hann said that they are a B2B software infrastructure company. The company looked for investors who understood it.
Hann confirmed that the public listing of Molten Venture also carried some weight, since it was not subject to typical funding cycles. It was appealing to us that a partner would be committed to us for a long time.
It doesn't hurt that Citigroup's venture arm is based in the U.S. Hann said that it was great to have a U.S.-based investor that could help with network and relationships there.
Mostly Artificial Intelligence has received $25 million in new funding and will now have more resources to compete against other companies in its segment of the synthetic data space. The companies include Tonic.ai, which raised a $35 million Series B last September, as well as other companies that focus on specific industries.
Hann said that there is a lot of interest in the space and market.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
