YourNest leads $750K Pre-Series A funding for Arya.ai, Deep Learning platform for developers, along with VentureNursery Members
Third round of investment by VentureNursery members for its 2014 graduate InvenZone founders
Mumbai December 22, 2015
Arya.ai, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) start-up has raised Pre-Series A funding of $750K from YourNest Angel Fund and VentureNursery members. Arya.ai offers its deep learning algorithms for developers to build intelligent AI systems.
These funds will be used to accelerate product development and to grow the AI eco-system. This is the third time VentureNursery members have participated in the funding process.
While most companies and developers want to use AI in their applications, building an intelligent AI system involves solving many complex steps right from creating 'Intelligence' to managing the complex 'Dev Ops'. This time-consuming and resource intensive effort in building strong intelligence systems poses a big challenge.
Arya.ai started by two IIT Mumbai researchers Vinay Kumar Sankarapu and Deekshith Marla solves this problem for developers. Arya.ai as a platform provides advanced AI tools offered as modules in 'Language', 'Vision', 'Speech' and 'Reasoning' for developers. They can start building AI computing systems by assembling the modules and giving the relevant knowledge base for the machine to learn.
"Using AI, developers can build applications that can solve most complex problems. However, the biggest pain point in building reliable AI applications is solving multiple challenges they encounter in the process," says Vinay Kumar, Founder and CEO of Arya.ai.
"Arya.ai, as a platform addresses this key problem for developers and organisations by bringing the most complex technologies from the labs, simplifying it and enabling developers to work on amazing possibilities of AI," adds 25-year old Vinay Kumar.
Girish Shivani, Fund Manager at YourNest Angel Fund says, "We are excited about the opportunities Arya.ai is creating in the way humans interact with machines. A modular platform, with ready to integrate modules can accelerate adoption of AI in day to day life and bring immense value to the end user," he says. Post this investment Shivani is joining Arya.ai as a board member as a nominee of YourNest.
Samir Shah, Investor and Board Nominee from VentureNursery who has seen Vinay and team build an effective Deep Learning platform for the last two years says, "We expect Arya to impact millions of end users as an Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) companion, and improve their ability to make better decisions, especially in complex areas of science and medicine. We are delighted to back a team that promises to be a global player in AI."
"Over the next few years, we expect AI to become ubiquitous in our daily lives making us more efficient. The man machine interface will evolve to a level wherein tasks that take time but utilise our innate intelligence and thinking capability only to a limited extent will be seamlessly automated, thereby making us more productive", adds Girish Shivani.
Arya.ai uses complex Deep Learning Algorithms to develop General AI systems that can adapt and learn to multiple use cases with minimal inputs from humans. These systems become better and better with experiences and learning.
These modules can be used in building intelligent AI systems for a vast number of use cases in multiple verticals -- right from creating an AI assistant for radiologists to creating a 'bot' to automate the customer experience handling.
Arya.ai has been working with developers across verticals like Travel, Research, e-Commerce, Customer Care, Medicine and Banking and will soon address other verticals like Automobile, Military and Defence.
"In the next five years, we expect to see more intelligent machines that understand us and relieve us of routine tasks. These AI systems can revolutionise the way we work as professionals and individuals", says Vinay Kumar. "By joining hands with developers, Arya.ai aspires to build world class AI systems that can amplify the human abilities and efficiencies."
Recently, arya.ai became the first Indian start-up to be selected worldwide by French innovation agency Paris&Co as one of 21 companies that do standout innovations. This comes just six months after Arya.ai was named among the top four next generation technology start-ups by 'Silicon Valley Forum' held at Microsoft's US campus.
About Arya.ai:
Arya founders Deeskhith Marla (L)
and Vinay Kumar (R)
Set up by two researchers from IIT Bombay, Vinay Kumar Sankarapu and Deekshith Marla, the Arya.ai. team includes researchers and scientists in 'Mathematics and Computing' with expertise in 'Artificial Intelligence'.
The Arya.ai team's research experience spans BioTech, Finance and Computing.
It was founded in 2013 with the mission of making machines intelligent to assist humans in faster and effective decision making in their professions. Since then Arya.ai has been investing its resources in developing a true technology solutions with a bigger impact on global audience.
About YourNest Angel Fund[/b]
YourNest is an Angel Fund that believes in 'liberating human potential' while investing in technology enabled, vibrant, new business ideas. Ventures scalable with the use of mobile, internet and cloud are preferred. YourNest has seen the opportunity and has the passion to build the start-ups into significant, meaningful businesses. YourNest supports "very few ideas" as it invests with conviction and operates in the areas that they know the best. YourNest has invested in innovative start-ups like mycity4kids.com, Proof of Performance, Uniphore Software, nlpcaptcha.com, bookmycab.com, GolfLan, BetaOut and Rubique.com. For details, please refer tohttp://www.yournest.in.
About VentureNursery
VentureNursery, India's premier angel-backed start-up accelerator, pursues its goal of helping Indian start-ups and founders achieve pole position, in their endeavour to solve large problems and create scalable ventures.
VentureNursery's acceleration programs focus on first time entrepreneurs and helps find their feet and develop an ability to take difficult decisions in business. Through its intensive acceleration programs that last between eight and forty weeks, the start-up founders develop market understanding, learn business fundamentals and get solution validation from experienced entrepreneurs and business professionals, helping them reduce some of the basic risk of starting, staying and building the business. VentureNursery is guided in its strategic and day to day operations by its governance council, consisting of highly experienced business professionals and seasoned angel investors.
VentureNursery has successfully fostered a Culture of Curiosity, Problem Solving and Innovation among its graduates to create enterprises, employment, and socio-economic value.
VentureNursery alumni include branded budget hotel chain OYO Rooms, video interview platformTalview, fashion and lifestyle social commerce platform Klip, crowd funding platform Catapooolt,travel start-up SeekSherpa, artificial general intelligence company and Arya.ai developer InvenZone, last minute hotel booking company HotelsAroundYou, curated activity and hobby classes discovery company FindUrClass, on-demand beauty and wellness platform The Home Salon and and Fixy, an on-demand service platform for Handyman, Repair and Home Maintenance Services.
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