An artificial intelligence startup with its headquarters in Delafield plans to nearly double its staff this year after raising $15 million in its latest venture capital round.
Synthetaic Inc. announced its Series B raise Tuesday. It currently has 47 employees and plans to hire an additional 40 by the end of the year, the startup told the Milwaukee Business Journal via email.
The company's technology is designed to help customers quickly use AI in a cost effective manner to identify objects within raw image data, including video and satellite imagery. The company was founded in 2019 and is now focused on scaling.
“The next chapter is about bringing that technology to market so that companies across all industries can find the seemingly impossible answers locked inside their visual datasets,” Synthetaic CEO and founder Corey Jaskolski said in a Tuesday press release.
Synthetaic plans to move into The Grain, a mass timber office building that's underway in downtown Delafield. The building is still under construction, Synthetaic said.
Commercialization efforts
Synthetaic has gained national attention including from the New York Times, which last year used the company's technology to trace the path of a suspected Chinese spy balloon. A CNN journalist also recently used Synthetaic's technology to map bomb damage in Gaza.
Synthetaic said it will use the new funding to accelerate customer acquisition and capture new market opportunities within both the government and commercial sectors.
Last year, Synthetaic announced a five-year partnership with Microsoft Corp. and a contract with the U.S. Army. It previously had contracts with the U.S. Air Force.
Fundraising
The lead investors in Synthetaic's Series B raise were Green Bay's TitletownTech and New York's Lupa Systems, which both previously invested in the company. Microsoft is a partner in TitletownTech, alongside the Green Bay Packers.
Other investors included Booz Allen Hamilton, another previous investor, and IBM Ventures, a new Synthetaic investor.
“For IBM, this investment is not just about advancing the technology stack," IBM vice president and global head of product and strategy for IBM sustainability software Christina Shim said in a statement. "(It's about) embracing innovation that complements our ongoing focus on how AI can drive sustainability for our clients.”
Synthetaic previously raised a $13 million Series A round in early 2022 and $4.5 million in pre-seed and seed funding in 2020.
The company declined to disclose its current valuation. It said it hit its Series B fundraising goal with a fully subscribed round.
