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Image credits: InstaDeep

InstaDeep, a London-based AI startup that creates decision-making systems for solving real-world problems, announced on Monday that it has raised $100M in a Series B funding round led by Alpha Intelligence Capital together with CDIB. 

BioNTech, Chimera Abu Dhabi, Deutsche Bahn’s DB Digital Ventures, Google, G42, and Synergie, also participated in the round.

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Fund utilisation

The company says the funding will enable it to advance its computing infrastructure optimised for Decision-Making AI, hire elite talent, and accelerate the launch of its products across multiple industries like biotech, logistics, transportation, and electronics manufacturing. 

The company is also planning to expand its global presence into the United States.

“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,” says Karim Beguir, co-founder and CEO of InstaDeep. 

He adds, “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: What you need to know

InstaDeep, now based in London, began in 2014 in Tunis in North Africa, with two laptops, $2000 and a lot of enthusiasm, according to Beguir, the co-founder. 

Founded by Karim Beguir and Zohra Slim, the African-founded company helps companies improve crucial parts of their operations through AI technologies like Reinforcement Learning.  

Reinforcement Learning is a type of machine learning that helps design effective optimisation strategies for various challenges, from therapeutics development to railway operations and more. 

Partnerships

In 2020, InstaDeep formed a multi-year strategic partnership with BioNTech to launch a joint AI innovation lab to deploy the latest advances in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to develop novel immunotherapies.

As part of this collaboration, the two companies created an AI-powered Early Warning System (EWS) for detecting high-risk SARS-CoV-2 variants.

As per the company’s claim, it detected the Omicron variant on the day its sequence became available among more than 70,000 novel variants discovered in October and November 2021.

InstaDeep collaborates with Google on AI initiatives and has published joint research with DeepMind and Google Research. 

Additionally, the company is also working to automate railway scheduling with Deutsche Bahn, the largest rail operator and infrastructure owner in Europe. The company has partnered with Nvidia and Intel too. 

InstaDeep now has offices in Paris, Tunis, Lagos, Dubai, and Cape Town. 

Investor

Based out of Luxembourg, Alpha Intelligence Capital is a private venture capital fund. The company invests in deep Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) technology-based companies.

Arnaud Barthelemy, Partner and COO, Alpha Intelligence Capital, says, “As the first global fund fully dedicated to artificial intelligence and machine learning, we are particularly proud to have led this Series B round, together with first-class co-investors. 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.”