Tunisia-founded enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) startup InstaDeep has raised a US$100 million Series B funding round to further develop its tech, grow its team, and accelerate the launch of disruptive AI products across various sectors.
Founded in Tunisia in 2014 but now headquartered in London having gone global, InstaDeep delivers AI products and solutions for the enterprise sector, and also has offices in Paris, Tunis, Lagos, Cape Town and Dubai.
Powered by high-performance computing and outstanding research and development breakthroughs, InstaDeep utilises deep reinforcement learning and other advanced machine learning techniques to create AI systems that can optimise decision-making processes in real-life industrial environments.
Disrupt Africa reported in May 2019 InstaDeep had raised US$7 million in Series A funding, buts its Series B suggests significant development since, with the company banking US$100 million in a round led by Alpha Intelligence Capital together with CDIB. Other investors in the round include BioNTech, Chimera Abu Dhabi, Deutsche Bahn’s DB Digital Ventures, Google, G42 and Synergie.
InstaDeep will use the funding to advance its high-performance computing infrastructure optimised for Decision-Making AI, continue to hire elite talent, and accelerate the launch of disruptive AI products across multiple industries – including biotech, logistics, transportation and electronics manufacturing. The firm will also expand its global presence into the United States (US).
“This funding round is a tremendous vote of confidence from our partners BioNTech, Google and Deutsche Bahn after working closely with us on innovative, high-impact AI initiatives,” said Karim Beguir, co-founder and CEO of InstaDeep. “And we are very excited to get the support of Alpha Intelligence Capital, Chimera, Synergie and G42 as we see wide-ranging opportunities to deploy our AI products to tackle complex real-world problems.”
InstaDeep and BioNTech formed a multi-year strategic collaboration in 2020 to launch a joint AI innovation lab to deploy the latest advances in AI and machine learning to develop novel immunotherapies. The company collaborates with Google on AI initiatives and has published joint research with DeepMind and Google Research. It is also working on a moonshot product to automate railway scheduling with Deutsche Bahn, the largest rail operator and infrastructure owner in Europe.
“InstaDeep has demonstrated unique capabilities in solving very complex railway problems using groundbreaking AI-first technologies. The team’s skills and thought leadership in this space have paved the way for the adoption of cutting-edge AI technologies in the railway domain. We are happy to join the investment round and enable a stronger partnership with Deutsche Bahn to jointly harness the potential of applying AI,” said Boris Kuehn, managing director, DB Digital Ventures.
Arnaud Barthelemy, partner and COO of Alpha Intelligence Capital, said he was proud to lead the round.
“InstaDeep is a deep technology company that disrupts traditional approaches in crucial areas as they do with BioNTech for drug discovery or with Deutsche Bahn for railway scheduling. We are thrilled to join this exciting adventure and eager to help support InstaDeep’s growth through our unique AI expertise,” he said.
