Much of the buzz around artificial intelligence has surrounded companies focused on general purpose artificial intelligence, as opposed to companies applying AI algorithms like machine learning and deep learning in specific industries.
“From healthcare to finance to e-commerce, we’re focused on changing people’s lives.” – Antoine Blondeau, CEO, Sentient Technologies
Taking a look at the core AI companies like Sentient — companies focused on general-purpose AI applicable across a variety of industries — a few have already received $50M or more in equity funding.
These include Sentient, Ayasdi, Digital Reasoning, Vicarious (whose backers include angels Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Marc Benioff ) as well as DataRobot.
We used CB Insights data to look at the most well-funded core AI companies, below.
Most well-funded companies: Core AI
Deep learning startup Sentient Technologies, backed by investors including Horizon Ventures and India’s Tata Communications, is the most well-funded startup focused on core AI tech.
The company has developed an AI platform for investment and trading and recently rolled out an AI sales associate for e-commerce. In the healthcare field, Sentient is reportedly working on an AI nurse to diagnose sepsis in patients.
The rankings below are based on equity funding rounds raised by core AI companies working towards advancing AI technologies.
| Rank | Company | Total Funding | Select Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sentient Technologies | $143.8M | BlackPine Private Equity Partners, Horizons Ventures, Tata Communications |
| 2 | Ayasdi | $97.9M | Centerview Capital, Citi Ventures, DARPA, Draper Nexus Ventures, Floodgate, GE Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, U.S. Department of Defense |
| 3 | Digital Reasoning Systems | $75.6M | FinTech Innovation Lab, Goldman Sachs, In-Q-Tel, Lemhi Ventures, Nashville Capital Network |
| 4 | Vicarious Systems | $67M | Data Collective, Elon Musk, Felicis Ventures, FF Angel, Formation 8, Founders Fund, Good Ventures, Jeff Bezos, Khosla Ventures, Marc Benioff, Mark Zuckerberg,Sam Altman, Samsung Ventures, Wipro Ventures |
| 5 | DataRobot | $57.4M | IA Ventures, Intel Capital, New Enterprise Associates,TechStars |
| 6 | Face++ | $48M | China’s Innovation Works, Ignition Partners, Qiming Venture Partners |
| 7 | Cortica | $37.4M | Horizons Ventures |
| 8 | Affectiva | $34.2M | Fenox Venture Capital, Horizons Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Myrian Capital, National Science Foundation |
| 9 | H2O.ai | $30.6M | Capital One Growth Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Paxion Capital Partners, Transamerica Ventures |
| 10 | Viv Labs | $30M | Horizons Ventures, Iconiq Capital, Pritzker Group Venture Capital |