A Madison AI company that’s using artificial intelligence and machine learning for data management recently landed an investment from one of the country’s largest tech companies.
GreenBay Technologies, officially founded as a company just last month, is based on work started by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and two PhD students.
AnHai Doan, a professor of computer science at UW-Madison and the CEO of GreenBay Technologies, said he and his team have been working on their AI and machine learning platform for the last six years. Yash Govind and Derek Paulsen are the two PhD students and co-founders who’ve helped form the startup.
Informatica, a Redwood City, Calif.-based enterprise cloud data management company that generates more than $1 billion in annual revenue, invested an undisclosed amount in GreenBay Technologies, making it the sole investor in the startup, Doan said.
Informatica’s investment allows it to use GreenBay Technologies’ CloudMatcher technology for developing an existing intelligent data product called Claire. Informatica said using GreenBay Technologies’ tech strengthens its R&D AI capabilities to create technology that ensures its enterprise clients can easily identify, access and utilize organizational data to make informed business decisions.
“Everyone’s realized that if you want to do data science, you need to have very strong machine learning and AI complements,” Doan said.
Informatica, which invests $196 million annually into research and development, employs more than 4,200 people around the globe. In 2015, Informatica was acquired by Permira Advisors and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $5.3 billion.
"GreenBay Technologies is a clear choice for investment and the right partner to advance our AI and machine learning research capabilities,” said Informatica President of Products and Marketing Amit Walia in a statement. “Their machine learning-based data management innovations are practical, effective and more advanced than anything we've seen.”
Doan said the relationship with Informatica will help introduce GreenBay Technologies to more enterprise clients. Additionally, the relationship allows Informatica to be closer to the talent coming out of UW-Madison as it recruits employees to manage its AI initiatives.
“The competition for machine learning and AI is very, very high,” Doan said. “And Informatica recognizes UW-Madison is actually a great place, where there’s a lot of talent for AI and machine learning.”
