SparkCognition Inc. is the new king of the venture capital hill in Central Texas.
The artificial intelligence company announced Tuesday it had raised $100 million in a series C funding round led by California-based March Capital Partners. The investment values SparkCognition at $770 million, according to a September PitchBook profile. The company has raised a total of $175 million since CEO Amir Husain founded it in 2013.
SparkCognition Inc. is the new king of the venture capital hill in Central Texas.
“This new round of funding will allow SparkCognition to further accelerate its mission of advancing AI systems that can solve the world’s toughest problems,” Husain said in an email. “Specifically, the company plans to add talent that will help scale the organization, further invest in its research efforts, and make significant progress towards its mission of integrating artificial intelligence into the physical systems that have a direct impact on our quality of life.”
SparkCognition's AI work spans many applications and industries, from oil and gas to defense, utilities to aviation, financial services to manufacturing. Examples of its AI in use include predicting maintenance issues before they arise, making factories more efficient.
In November, SparkCognition spun out a company called SkyGrid in a partnership with Boeing Co. Husain is also CEO of Skygrid, which is tasked with creating a software platform for connecting autonomous aerial vehicles carrying cargo and passengers.
Other partnerships include with Hitachi High-Technologies and Aker BP.
In addition to March Capital, new investors in SparkCognition's series C round include Temasek, Kerogen Digital Solutions, Hearst Ventures and Malcolm Turnbull, the former Australian prime minister and former managing director of Goldman Sachs Australia.
Editor's Note: This story was originally published in the Austin Business Journal. Get additional details and read the rest of the story here [subscriber content].
