In the looser-than-loose venture capital environment we’re currently experiencing, an upstart company with an idea and big plans has found the right connections and hit the jackpot.
San Francisco-based Sentient Technologies (pronounced “sen-shent”), which proclaimed that it wants to build the largest, most powerful artificial intelligence network in the world, revealed Dec. 1 that it has raised $103.5 million in Series C funding that brings total investment in the startup to more than $143 million.
Sentient provides what it calls “massively scaled” artificial intelligence within networks. It routinely runs multiple distributed AI jobs on millions of AI processing nodes, producing actionable results validated on large and complex data sets, the company said.
Utilizing evolutionary computation and deep learning—designed to continuously evolve and improve—Sentient aims to create the world’s most powerful business intelligence system to enable researchers, innovators and companies to solve high-value problems.
Sentient’s distributed artificial intelligence has patented capabilities that address the distributed, varied, asynchronous nature of data and its continuous influx and growth in order to understand it and make accurate decisions, the company said.
Sentient, not being overly specific, said it will use the funds to further expand the development and reach of its distributed artificial intelligence products and services.
Access Industries led the round with Tata Communications Ltd. of Hong Kong, existing investors Horizons Ventures, and a group of private investors in the fields of finance, consumer, food and beverage, and real estate, all participating.