CognitiveScale, a fast-growing startup in Austin, has raised an additional $15 million in equity funding.
The investment comes from Norwest Venture partners, Intel Capital, Microsoft Ventures, The Westly Group and USAA. And it brings CognitiveScale's total funding to just over $50 million since its founding in 2013.
“This round of funding demonstrates continued confidence in our strategy to help businesses augment and extend human creativity and capabilities,” Akshay Sabhikhi, CEO of CognitiveScale, said in a news release. “We have delivered real and measurable outcomes with some of the largest banks, healthcare and retail organizations, and are delighted to see the great client and investor demand for our enterprise AI products.”
CognitiveScale develops augmented intelligence software targeted at the healthcare, commerce and financial markets. Its two primary products are Engage, which applies machine learning to customer interactions by learning from preferences and other individual insights, and Amplify, which is used internally by businesses to automate certain processes.
In addition to the funding, CognitiveScale said USAA has agreed to add CognitiveScale's software into its workflows to provide contextual customer engagement and improve productivity. That adds to the startup's existing list of deals with Fortune 100 healthcare, financial services and commerce companies.
The startup has filed more than 60 patents for its "Deep Cognition Engine," which provides AI algorithms to develop insights from changing data and market conditions. It continues to make new hires, with six positions currently listed as open.
The company is based in Austin, and it has offices in New York, London and India. It is led by Executive Chairman Manoj Saxena, a former general manager of IBM Watson; CEO Akshay Sabhikhi, a former global leader for IBM Smarter Care; and CTO Matt Sanchez, who led Watson Labs before founding CognitiveScale.
Here's a company video that explains how CognitiveScale products work in financial companies.
