Tag Archives: artificial intelligence (AI)

LegalFly secures €15 Million to set security standard in AI legal services

Fortino Capital

LegalFly raises €15m in a Series A round led by Notion Capital to further expand its GenAI-driven product to power corporate legal teams and democratise legal services.

London, UK – Monday, 15th July, 2024 – LegalFly, a pioneering legal AI platform, today announced it has raised over €15 million in Series A funding led by Notion Capital, with participation from redalpine and Fortino Capital. Founded one year ago, LegalFly has swiftly made its mark on the legal tech industry. This investment comes just eight months after the company’s €2 million Seed round led by redalpine, which saw early participation from industry leaders including Mehdi Ghissassi, Director of Product at Google Deepmind.

LegalFly was founded by a team of former product experts from Tinder – Ruben Miessen, Kasper Verbeeck, Dennis Montégnies and Gregory Vekemans – with a vision to democratise legal services for enterprises. The company has swiftly built momentum in the market with its advanced and intuitive legal AI solutions tailored for law firms and in-house teams, particularly within the finance and insurance sectors. Today, LegalFly counts dozens of leading European law firms and enterprises as customers and has forged strategic partnerships with industry giants such as Slaughter & May and Allianz.

“LegalFly is redefining how legal services are delivered, ensuring they are more accessible within a corporate environment while upholding the highest standards of security and efficiency,” stated Ruben Miessen, CEO of LegalFly. “This investment enables us to scale our operations and innovate further, driving forward the digital transformation in legal services that our clients require globally.”

Ruben Miessen, CEO

LegalFly is revolutionising legal and compliance departments with a full suite of Legal AI agents designed to automate legal services and enhance productivity. As the €884 billion legal services market turns to AI to boost efficiency and cut costs, LegalFly is setting the global standard for responsible legal AI featuring unrivalled security.

Unique in its approach, LegalFly ensures that sensitive client data never leaves a company’s premises. This is achieved through on-premise anonymisation, where a fine-tuned model secures data before it ever reaches the LLMs. Coupled with an LLM-agnostic platform that selects the best foundational models for each legal scenario, LegalFly increases both product efficacy and security.

The investment will fuel LegalFly’s ambitious growth plan, tripling its current team by year’s end and accelerating feature development. The funding will also support LegalFly’s continued expansion across Europe and enhance its partnerships with leading law firms and enterprises, paving the way for next-generation legal services that are both effective and secure.

“The legal industry is a perfect fit for AI. We have been looking at making an investment in the market for sometime and in LegalFly we are very confident that they will be one of the enduring success stories,” said Jos White, General Partner at Notion Capital. “The super talented team have a clear vision for the future and have already built a market leading product. The true test of this is the way it’s being received in the market which has been nothing short of amazing after only a year.”

“LegalFly’s rapid ascent showcases their exceptional vision and execution, solidifying their product leadership in the Legal AI space. Their unique focus on enterprise-grade security and an LLM-agnostic platform not only meets a critical industry need but also drives their continuous expansion and innovation. Transforming legal services with secure, AI-driven solutions, we are proud to have led their seed round and to witness their robust and sustained growth.” said Sebastian Becker, General Partner at redalpine.

 

About LegalFly

Founded in 2023 by four Tinder tech veterans, LegalFly is driving a monumental shift in the legal industry from its base in Belgium. Our mission is to democratise legal services within enterprises, making complex legal processes more accessible and manageable. Our leading AI solution automates a broad spectrum of the more repetitive legal tasks, translating legalese to ease. Discover how we’re simplifying legal workflows for enterprises at https://www.legalfly.ai.

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Altor divests Silo AI

Altor divests Silo AI

Published

Jul 12 2024

In June 2022 Altor invested and partnered with Silo AI, a private AI lab based out of Helsinki, Finland. The ambition was to build a leading European AI flagship.

On July 10, 2024, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Silo AI, which now has become the largest private AI lab in Europe, in an all-cash transaction valued at $665 million. The Silo AI team consists of world-class AI scientists and engineers with extensive experience developing tailored AI models, platforms and solutions for leading enterprises spanning cloud, embedded and endpoint computing markets.

Silo AI CEO and co-founder Peter Sarlin will continue to lead the Silo AI team as part of the AMD Artificial Intelligence Group. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2024.

“We are really proud of the partnership with Silo AI and it is astonishing what they have been able to accomplish during the past years,” said Mattias Holmström, Partner and head of the Tech Sector at Altor. “This combination is a testament to the great franchise that Peter, Tero and the rest of the Silo AI team and board have built. We think AMD is an excellent new owner and we wish them the best on their future endeavours” said Stian Tuv, Principal at Altor.

“At Silo AI, our mission from the start has been to build an AI flagship company. Today’s announcement is a logical next step in that pursuit as we join forces with AMD to shape the future of AI computing,” said Peter Sarlin, CEO and co-founder of Silo AI. “Since we partnered with Altor in 2022, we have reached many milestones and succeeded in building Silo AI into a leading European AI flagship. We have had a fantastic journey with Altor and now we look forward to further scale our impact and reach new heights”

About Altor

Since inception, the family of Altor funds has raised more than EUR 11 billion in total commitments. The funds have invested in just south of 100 companies. The investments have been made in medium-sized predominantly Nordic and DACH companies with the aim to create value through growth initiatives and operational improvements. Among current and past investments are Meltwater, OX2, Carnegie, Raw Fury, Toteme and QNTM Group.

For more information visit www.altor.com

About Silo AI

Silo AI is Europe’s largest private AI lab on a mission to ensure Europe has a flagship AI company. We’re a trusted AI partner that brings competitive advantage to product R&D. We build AI-driven solutions and products to enable smart devices, autonomous vehicles, industry 4.0, and smart cities. Silo AI provides its customers unique access to world-class AI models and expertise, as well as the SiloGen model-as-a-service platform. As part of SiloGen, Silo AI is currently building market leading open source LLMst to ensure European digital sovereignty and democratize access to LLMs.

For more information visit www.silo.ai

About AMD

For more than 50 years AMD has driven innovation in high-performance computing, graphics and visualization technologies. Billions of people, leading Fortune 500 businesses and cutting-edge scientific research institutions around the world rely on AMD technology daily to improve how they live, work and play. AMD employees are focused on building leadership high-performance and adaptive products that push the boundaries of what is possible. For more information about how AMD is enabling today and inspiring tomorrow, visit the AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) website www.amd.com

Press contact

Karin Åström

Head of Communications

karin.astrom@altor.com

+46 707 64 86 59

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Axelera AI Raises $68 Million Series B Funding to Accelerate Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence

Innovation Industries

Axelera AI Raises $68 Million Series B Funding to Accelerate Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence

Silicon Valley, CA and Eindhoven, NL – June 27, 2024 – Axelera AI, the leading provider of purpose-built AI hardware acceleration technology for generative AI and computer vision inference, today announced its successful close of an oversubscribed $68 million Series B financing round, bringing the total amount raised to $120 million. In just three years, Axelera AI has built a world-class team of 180+ employees (including 55+ PhD’s with more than 40,000 citations), launched its Metis™ AI Platform which achieves a 3-5x increase in efficiency and performance, and has visibility into a strong business pipeline which exceeds $100 million. This success has attracted diverse, global funding from venture capital, sovereign wealth and pension funds.

Axelera AI’s Series B funding round is Europe’s largest oversubscribed Series B funding round in the fabless semiconductor industry. It is backed by major institutional investors, including Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund, the European Innovation Council Fund, Innovation Industries Strategic Partners Fund (backed by Dutch Pension Funds PMT and PME, administered by MN) and Samsung Catalyst Fund, along with existing investors Verve Ventures, Innovation Industries, Fractionelera and the Italian sovereign fund CDP Venture Capital SGR. The new capital adds to previously raised funds, including the innovation credit from RVO, and equity investment from Bitfury, CDP Venture Capital, Federal Holding and Investment Company of Belgium (SFPIM), imec, imec.xpand and Innovation Industries.

Companies are embracing new and innovative ways to incorporate computer vision and generative AI capabilities into business models. However, challenges associated with energy consumption, cost, limited supply and scalability are inhibiting the true potential of AI. Axelera AI addresses these exact industry challenges by providing a solution that delivers unmatched performance and efficiency. This new capital enables Axelera AI to grow its high demand AI inference solutions based on its proprietary digital in-memory computing and RISC-V technology.

Axelera AI’s growth strategy also eyes opportunities across new geographies and market sectors. The Series B funding fosters global expansion for Axelera AI with a focus on growth opportunities in North America, Europe and Middle East. In addition, the capital facilitates expansion across key vertical markets such as automotive, digital healthcare, Industry 4.0, retail, robots & drones, surveillance and more. The funding also enables Axelera AI to broaden its future product offerings from the edge to the data center to address the growing computing needs for generative AI, large language models and large multi-modal models. This market expansion includes high-performance computing by designing high efficiency, high-performance and price-competitive AI accelerators to power future exa-scale and peta-scale HPC centers.

“There’s no denying that the AI industry has the potential to transform a multitude of sectors,” said Fabrizio Del Maffeo, Co-Founder and CEO at Axelera AI. “However, to truly harness the value of AI, organizations need a solution that delivers high-performance and efficiency while balancing cost. This funding supports our mission to democratize access to artificial intelligence, from the edge to the cloud. By expanding our product lines beyond the edge computing market, we are able to address industry challenges in AI inference and support current and future AI processing needs with our scalable, proven technology.”

IDC forecasts that IT infrastructure for AI semiconductors will reach $193 billion by the end of 2027. To address this market demand, Axelera AI’s Metis™ AI Platform, the industry’s most powerful, cost-effective and energy efficient AI processing unit for inference, will be in full production in the second half of 2024.

“We are very excited to support Axelera AI in their Series B financing. The company introduces a very innovative approach for high performance AI acceleration at the edge, by implementing Digital In-Memory Computing,” said Marco Chisari, Head of Samsung Semiconductor Innovation Center and Executive Vice President, Samsung Electronics. “Axelera AI’s architecture minimizes data movement between memory and compute elements, aiming to overcome the “Memory Wall” challenge. It also has the promise of significantly reducing power consumption, a critical attribute for AI applications at the edge and beyond.”

“Axelera AI’s Series B funding round, with backing from venture capital, sovereign and pension funds, underscores the company’s record of delivering industry defining solutions for customers to meet the growing demand for generative AI and computer vision,” said Inder Singh, Axelera AI board member and former CFO of Arm. “With this new funding, Axelera AI will be able to continue to build upon its product offerings and expand into additional markets, in alignment with the progression of the market for GenAI.”

The combination of Axelera AI’s experienced Board of Directors, the executive leadership team and this Series B investment positions Axelera AI to build upon its early customer momentum and further support the needs of AI innovators across vertical markets. Axelera AI customers are currently utilizing the Metis AI Platform within their cutting-edge products to differentiate the unique offerings they bring to their respective markets.

Axelera AI is currently shipping evaluation kits. Additional details can be found at at www.axelera.ai/metis-evaluation-kit.

For more information on Axelera AI, please visit www.axelera.ai.

About Axelera AI

Axelera AI is the leading provider of purpose-built AI hardware acceleration technology for AI inference, including computer vision and generative AI applications. Its first-generation product is the game-changing Metis™ AI platform – a holistic hardware and software solution for Edge AI inference which delivers world’s highest performance and power-efficiency at a fraction of the cost of alternative solutions. Headquartered in the AI Innovation Center of the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Axelera AI has R&D offices in Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and the UK, with more than 180 employees in 18 countries. Its team of experts in AI software and hardware hail from top AI firms and Fortune 500 companies.

Media Contact:

Hanna Kang
Wireside Communications® for Axelera AI
axelera@wireside.com

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Our Series A in Decagon: Bringing Human-Like AI to Enterprise Customer Operations

Accel

Today we’re announcing our Series A in Decagon, an AI company powering a new generation of customer operations.

The promise of customer experience automation has been just around the corner for years. We’ve seen the industry go through many transitions from branching scripts to chat widgets, and yet it continues to be a human-in-the-loop process rife with mistakes, latency, and overall poor NPS. Mix together the broadening, global customer base that companies like Rippling, Vanta, and Eventbrite (all current Decagon customers) serve today with each company’s own expanding portfolios of products, and one can appreciate the compounding problem of delivering customer services like support, success, sales, and onboarding. It’s not getting easier.

Decagon flips the problem on its head with an AI-native solution that mirrors human capabilities and accelerates every layer of the customer operations stack. Decagon’s agents don’t just respond to customer inquiries, they proactively analyze conversations to understand insights, file bug reports, synthesize feature gaps, and even take actions on behalf of customers. In turn, engineers get the right bug reports, UX sees real-time visibility issues — and most importantly, customer issues are resolved in a fraction of the time and cost.

We’ve known Jesse and Ashwin for many years, and have seen first hand the intensity and intuition they apply to even the most unique product and company building problems. As second-time founders of both consumer and enterprise startups, they deeply understand what it means to be customer-obsessed. That’s critical, because we’re in an era of software where computer science fundamentals matter again, but founders must stay grounded in real customer problems. The winners won’t just be the ones with the biggest billboards — the winners will blend these new technical forces with deep customer understanding.

We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Decagon to redefine how companies engage with their customers. We’re hiring high-agency, passionate teammates now. Come join us!

– Ivan Zhou

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EQT to acquire majority position to support the growth of CluePoints, a leading provider of AI-powered software solutions used for data interrogation and analytics in clinical trials

eqt
  • CluePoints is a cloud-based software platform for Risk-Based Quality Management (“RBQM”) and data quality oversight in clinical trials, designed to enable safer and more efficient processes and improving data integrity and risk compliance
  • As scientific breakthroughs and advancements in technology and data are accelerating healthcare innovation, the markets for RBQM and data interrogation & analytics software are expected to experience strong growth
  • In this highly thematic investment at the intersection of pharma, software and AI, EQT will apply its expertise investing in healthcare and throughout the tech value-chain to help CluePoints cement its leading global position
  • Summit Partners, an investor in CluePoints since 2020, and Clinimetrics SA, a co-founder of CluePoints, will retain minority stakes with participation in this funding round

EQT is pleased to announce that the EQT Healthcare Growth Strategy and the EQT Growth Fund have agreed to acquire a majority stake in CluePoints (the “Company”), with meaningful reinvestment from the management team and existing shareholders Summit Partners and Clinimetrics SA, which was also a co-founder of the Company.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Belgium, CluePoints is a premier software provider for RBQM and data quality oversight in clinical trials. Applying advanced statistics and machine learning, and harnessing over 10 years of clinical trials knowledge, CluePoints’ proprietary algorithms help drive positive outcomes for pharmaceutical and biotech companies, contract research organizations and other customers. The Company offers an end-to-end value proposition from initial risk identification to ongoing tracking and monitoring of issues and discrepancies throughout the drug development process. With more than 9,500 platform users, CluePoints has helped de-risk more than 1,600 studies and has detected over 142,000 issues for its customers, which include many of the top 20 largest pharma companies.

CluePoints received a growth investment from Summit Partners in 2020, and over the course of the last several years, the Company has generated significant growth, building a robust go-to-market function, launching new products and diversifying into new markets.

This new investment comes at a time when CluePoints is seeing accelerating growth, underpinned by increasing adoption of RBQM software across virtually all clinical trial phases. The industry is experiencing momentum due to growing research & development spend, increasing data complexity in clinical trials and a focus on patient safety and data quality driven partly by regulatory scrutiny.

Investing in CluePoints is aligned with the objectives of EQT Healthcare Growth to support companies with their mission to deliver positive healthcare outcomes, and of EQT Growth to invest in the next generation of technology leaders. EQT will apply its 30-year track record of investing in healthcare, experience of investing in software and AI, its in-house digital team and global network of Industrial Advisors to help CluePoints cement its leading global position in RBQM and data analytics for clinical trials.

Andy Cooper, CEO of CluePoints, said: “We are delighted that EQT has chosen to partner with CluePoints. EQT is a market-leading investor in both SaaS (Software as a Service) and medical research industries. This combination makes EQT an ideal partner for CluePoints which is a market leader for SaaS-based clinical data analytics. We are grateful for Summit’s active support over the last four years. Their depth of industry knowledge and operational resources have been instrumental in our growth trajectory. Both EQT and Summit share our passion for and commitment to leveraging innovative advanced statistics and machine learning solutions to eliminate manual, error-prone activities in the clinical trial process.”

Dr Mark Braganza, Partner in the EQT Healthcare Growth Advisory Team, commented: “We are excited to be partnering with CluePoints and its dynamic leadership team to help it scale and reach its full potential. The Company’s ambition is a perfect match with ours to help enable the development of medical research to deliver more effective, efficient and accessible healthcare.”

Kirk Lepke, Partner in the EQT Growth Advisory Team, said: “CluePoints is a prime example of how data, machine-learning and AI can be leveraged to improve real world outcomes – in this case pharmaceutical drug development. The entire EQT platform is behind this investment and ready to support the Company with its continued expansion in RBQM and into growing, adjacent markets.”

Thomas Tarnowski, a Managing Director at Summit Partners, said: “We’ve been proud to work alongside the entire CluePoints team during a period of meaningful growth and expansion, supporting the acceleration of product development efforts and entry into new markets.” Jono Pagden, a Principal at Summit, continued: “We are excited to continue our support of the Company and to partner with management and EQT during this next phase of growth.”

The transaction is subject to customary conditions and approvals. It is expected to close in Q3 2024.

Contacts
EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com
Summit Partners Press Office, mdevine@summitpartners.com
CluePoints Press Office, Jodie@discovery-pr.com

The information contained herein does not constitute an offer to sell, nor a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security, and may not be used or relied upon in connection with any offer or solicitation. Any offer or solicitation in respect of EQT Healthcare Growth will be made only through a confidential private placement memorandum and related documents which will be furnished to qualified investors on a confidential basis in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. The information contained herein is not for publication or distribution to persons in the United States of America. Any securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and may not be offered or sold without registration thereunder or pursuant to an available exemption therefrom. Any offering of securities to be made in the United States would have to be made by means of an offering document that would be obtainable from the issuer or its agents and would contain detailed information about the issuer of the securities and its management, as well as financial information. The securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration.

About EQT
EQT is a purpose-driven global investment organization with EUR 242 billion in total assets under management (EUR 132 billion in fee-generating assets under management), within two business segments – Private Capital and Real Assets. EQT owns portfolio companies and assets in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas and supports them in achieving sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.

More info: www.eqtgroup.com
Follow EQT on LinkedIn, X, YouTube and Instagram

About CluePoints
CluePoints is the premier Risk-Based Quality Management (RBQM) and Data Quality Oversight Software provider. CluePoints is leveraging the potential of artificial intelligence using advanced statistics and machine learning to determine the quality, accuracy, and integrity of clinical trial data both during and after study conduct. Aligned with guidance from the FDA, EMA, and ICH E6 (R2), CluePoints is deployed to support central and on-site monitoring, medical review, quality risk management and to drive a holistic Risk-Based strategy in all trials. Coupled with thought leadership and consulting expertise to aid pre-study risk assessment, identification of risk controls and solution implementation, you now have everything you need to adhere with global regulatory guidance. The result is positive clinical development outcomes, increased operational efficiency, lower costs and reduced regulatory submission risk as part of the industry paradigm shift to RBQM.

More info: www.cluepoints.com

About Summit Partners
Founded in 1984, Summit Partners is a global alternative investment firm with capital dedicated to growth equity, fixed income, and public equity opportunities. Summit invests across growth sectors of the economy and has invested in more than 550 companies in healthcare, technology and other growth industries. Summit maintains offices in North America and Europe and invests in companies around the world. For more information, please see www.summitpartners.com or Follow on LinkedIn.

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Light secures $13M scale the first AI-powered general ledger for automating global company finances

Seedcamp

Legacy ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems developed in the ‘80s and ‘90s fail to meet the expectations of today’s modern, global-first companies and are ripe for technological innovation. Software solutions focused on the general ledger — a company’s source of truth for financial transactions – are among the essentials in the CFO tech stack.

This is why we are excited to back Light, the first AI-powered general ledger for automating global company finances. Founded by Jonathan Sanders and Filip Kozjak, Light’s mission is to revolutionize ERP software for modern multinationals.

We partnered up with Light as part of their pre-seed and we’re really excited to see them come out of stealth and announce their seed round led by Atomico, in which we also participated.

The Copenhagen-based AI-driven platform unifies accounting, tax, payments, and reporting across entities, countries, and currencies, drastically reducing month-end closing times and enhancing accuracy. Companies can integrate Light with their CRM and HRM tools, their banks, and even their communication channels (e.g. Microsoft Teams and Slack).

Jonathan Sanders, Light’s co-founder and CEO emphasises:

 “Having both worked at and founded scaling companies, I am acutely familiar with how poor legacy accounting systems are, and how much that can impact your business. They’re expensive, very slow, and require too many add-ons to be useful on a standalone basis. With Light, our goal is to help companies understand their finances more accurately and quickly by integrating a ledger with a strong application layer, helping them achieve faster growth, stronger operations, and greater resilience.”

Light’s product has been developed in close collaboration with advisors who consist of former product leaders, chief architects and CXOs from Workday, SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Dynamics.

On why we partnered up with Light, our Partner Tom Wilson comments:

“Jonathan is a perfect founder to be building Light, he brings a huge amount of experience from his time working at Seedcamp Unicorn Pleo and founding VC-backed Juni. He fully appreciates the current market that Light is competing against and the scale of the opportunity to disrupt the legacy players. We love working with Jonathan and the Light team and look forward to seeing what they can achieve with this funding round which we’re delighted to follow-on in.”  

We are excited to participate in Light’s $13M financing round led by Atomico, alongside Entrée Capital, Cherry Ventures, and notable angels including Mario Götze.

For more information, visit light.inc.

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Veesual raises a $7.5 million Seed round

AXA

AI-Powered Virtual Try-On Technology Platform For The Fashion Industry Veesual Raises $7.5 Million, Announces US Expansion With New EILEEN FISHER Partnership

Investment for market leader of image generation technology for fashion brands and retailers in Europe will now support US customers looking to overcome inclusivity challenges

New York, NY—April 17, 2024—Veesual, a Paris-based virtual try-on platform for the fashion industry that revolutionizes the way online shoppers experience digital retail, today announced the closing of a $7.5 million dollar Seed round led by AVP (AXA Venture Partners) and Techstars. The investment will accelerate delivery of the company’s plans to expand into the US market by opening its first US-based office, recruiting senior US talent, enhancing its current product offering for US apparel companies and more. A cornerstone of Veesual’s US expansion is a new partnership with leading women’s fashion brand EILEEN FISHER. Under the terms of the collaboration, Veesual’s augmented shopping experiences powered by next-generation virtual try-on technology have been integrated into the EILEEN FISHER online shopping experience.

Founded in 2020, Veesual is on a mission to transform the online shopping experience for all customers, independent of style, fit and fashion preferences. Through its Augmented Shopping solutions Mix&Match, Switch Model and Look Inspiration, Veesual’s proprietary 2D-based Image Generation Engine (IGT) was designed specifically for fashion brands to deliver high-quality imagery at scale, and to be able to adapt several pieces of clothing on any model, with natural renderings and precise fitting. Veesual works with leading brands and retailers in Europe including premium (Claudie Pierlot), kids fashion (Sergent Major and DPAM), and popular fashion (La Redoute and Gemo).

While brands are working to reflect diversity for e-commerce shoppers by featuring models of different ethnicities, ages and body types, it can be extremely costly to shoot individual products on various models. Veesual’s Switch Model experience allows customers to choose a model they identify with while simultaneously accelerating online sales and reducing returns for brands.

“We are thrilled to be the first US brand to partner with Veesual on this innovative new virtual try-on tool,” notes Blair Silverman, Vice President of E-commerce at EILEEN FISHER. “EILEEN FISHER is committed to inclusivity, designing clothes that cater to every body shape. Navigating online shopping poses challenges, particularly in predicting how garments fit diverse body types. Our collaboration with Veesual addresses these challenges head-on and we are proud to be launching a tool that is sure to be a new standard for e-commerce.”

While 3D-based try-on technology can be expensive and time-consuming, 2D image solutions offer a scalable and cost-effective solution for brands that engage shoppers. According to recent data published by Insider Intelligence, by 2026 e-commerce is expected to total over $8.1 trillion and 24% of retail purchases are expected to take place online. Veesual enables brands to create a more seamless and inclusive shopping experience for customers and in turn, yield higher sales and a lower return rate, allowing them to capture a larger percentage of online sales.

“We are proud to invest in Veesual, in order to accelerate its commercial roll-out and pursue its technological developments, as well as its international expansion,” said François Robinet, Managing Partner of AVP. “We believe in Maxime and his team’s vision. They have demonstrated a strong ability to execute and understand market challenges by offering fashion brands solutions to optimize their customer experience. With a presence on both sides of the Atlantic, AVP’s teams will be able to support Veesual in the next stages of its development.”

To support aggressive growth in the US, Veesual is working to recruit more senior talent and will open its first US office in New York in 2025. In addition to e-commerce, Veesual aims to create value for brands by displaying generated images on their acquisition and retargeting channels.

“The global fashion ecosystem is undergoing a seismic shift right now. The industry is increasingly focused on sustainable production, a better, more relevant buying experience and upcycling as a new standard. At Veesual, we’re meeting those changes by drastically improving how shoppers buy online which creates a more inclusive retail experience while also improving fit and reducing waste,” said Veesual Co-Founder and CEO, Maxime Patte. “This fundraise is critical for our plans as we scale in the United States with brands who are pioneering the augmented shopping experience. We anticipate significant growth in 2024 and beyond.”

About AVP

AVP is a global venture capital firm specializing in high-growth, technology-enabled companies, managing more than $2 billion in assets across four investment strategies: Venture, Growth, Late Growth, and Fund of Funds. Since its establishment in 2016, AVP has invested in more than 60 technology companies in Venture and Growth stages in the US and Europe. With offices in New York, London, and Paris, AVP supports companies in expanding internationally and provides portfolio companies with tailored business development opportunities to further accelerate their growth. AVP operates under AXA IM- Alts, the alternative investment business unit of AXA IM.

For more information, visit axavp.com
Contact: Sébastien Loubry, Partner Business development (sebastien@axavp.com)

About Veesual

Founded in 2020, Veesual was developed when co-founders Maxime Patte and Damien Meurisse recognized the limited means of fashion brands to visually engage diverse customers online. The platform offers solutions that leverage the power of images to create inclusive experiences that engage all customers. Globally, brands including Claudie Pierlot, Sergeant Major and La Redoute use Veesual. To date, these partnerships have outperformed expectations, with a 75% average increase in conversation rate and a more than 20% increase in average order value for shoppers who engaged with one of Veesual’s solutions. Veesual, a Techstars portfolio company, was part of Station F’s Founders program and has raised $7.5M to date. For more information, please visit https://www.veesual.ai/.

About EILEEN FISHER, Inc.

EILEEN FISHER has been making a system of simple, timeless clothes for nearly 40 years. A socially conscious company, EILEEN FISHER designs its clothing to be part of a responsible lifecycle, starting with sustainable materials, then taking back its clothes to be resold (Renew) or remade into something entirely new (Waste No More). The company became a B Corp in 2016, which means it voluntarily meets high criteria for social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. The company’s clothes are sold online at eileenfisher.com, in more than 50 EILEEN FISHER stores in North America and over 500 department and specialty stores globally. Good-as-new pieces are resold at eileenfisherrenew.com, in two EILEEN FISHER Renew stores, and select EILEEN FISHER retail stores nationwide.

Media Contact

Courtney Page
Rally Point PR courtney.page@rallypoint.pr

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Altura raises 3 million euros in funding. AI-driven bid management software changes way of working.

Fortino Capital

Increasingly, government agencies, as well as private and public organisations, are using formal procurement processes such as a Request for X (RFX) to find a supplier for their contract. These processes are known for their complexity and the enormous amount of documentation required of participants. Altura has developed software to simplify the entire process around creating and managing proposals with the help of AI.  In the coming years, this development promises to dramatically change interactions between governmental organisations and companies, as well as business-to-business collaborations. With an investment of three million euros, Netherlands based Altura is poised to change the playing field in the world of proposal procedures.

Matthijs Huiskamp, founder and CEO Altura: “I see inefficiency in how companies and governments do business with other parties. This is because there is so much manual work and unnecessary steps. With the knowledge and automation in our software, those factors are removed and with that there is more room for vision, creativity, strategy and focus. AI plays the leading role in this.”

Matthijs Huiskamp, founder and CEO Altura

Future of doing business

Increasingly, business purchases are being completed through an RFX. In fact, in recent years, we are seeing smaller organisations purchasing through this route as well. RFX deals include a Request for Bid (RFB), Request for Information (RFI), Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quotation (RFQ) and a Request for Tender (RFT).

An RFX is an orderly step for an organisation to fairly compare all parties. The government is already required to follow this process in the form of tendering. For participating organisations, an RFX is often an expensive and time-consuming process with stacks of documents involving days of manual work.

From a database with insights into previous proposals, Altura can easily form the right strategy, price and text to increase the likelihood of success.

 

3 million euros funding

Altura launched the first version of its software two years ago. When founders Matthijs Huiskamp and Jordi van der Hek started exploratory talks with investors for a new round of growth, Curiosity VC was immediately enthusiastic and interested. Because of their focus on Artificial Intelligence, Curiosity turned out to be the perfect partner. Subsequently, they found a suitable co-investor in Fortino Capital with the necessary international knowledge and experience.

Wouter Goossens, Investment Director at Fortino Capital: “We see that companies are increasingly buying through RFXs. Matthijs and Jordi have the ambition to become category leaders with software to make bid management more efficient and effective. This objective and the speed at which the company is currently growing really appeal to us.”

Wouter Goossens, Fortino Capital

With the growth money, Altura will further improve their software. There will be a significant investment in tech talent to expand the platform.

The plan is to implement more products and provide even more quality support
to create a perfectly streamlined process.

Herman Kienhuis, managing partner at Curiosity VC: “We have researched the whole market in the field of AI in bid software and see that Altura is the best party. They use new AI technologies for finding and analysing tenders and RFXs, for automating time-consuming manual tasks and also as an assistant for proposal writing. This growth capital will allow them to accelerate their product development and commercial rollout.”

 

AI is storming the proposal management market

Bid management is now subject to AI disruption. That means the manner in which big companies do business and how the government spends is going to be changed. In five years, the field of RFX and procurement will look completely different. Altura is using AI to embrace and accelerate that change. All manual tasks will be solved with artificial intelligence and contextual data from companies. That leaves more time for the work that really matters.

The bid management software uses Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and Custom Prompting. Vector database technology and Graph database technology is deployed.

Thus, Altura’s software can support every step, providing a complete proposal process, from identifying new opportunities to project management and data analysis. The software can scrape product data from platforms, very accurately scan information from documents, estimate financial risks, summarize and organise content in a knowledge library. Based on the information found in the documentation, automated actions are created such as a schedule, task list, text for the proposal and other content. This significantly reduces manual tasks.

 

About Altura

Altura is the market leader in bid management software. The software combines data with technology for a winning proposal process. With Altura, teams can make better proposals by getting the right data insights and administrative tasks are automated by AI. Learn more: https://altura.io

 

About Curiosity VC

Curiosity is a Dutch venture capital fund focused on early-stage investments in AI software startups in the Benelux, Nordic and Baltic countries. Curiosity is led by two experienced operator investors, Herman Kienhuis and Maurice Beckand Verwee, supported by a community of expert advisors and portfolio entrepreneurs who are all co-owners of the fund. Learn more: https://www.curiosityvc.com

 

About Fortino Capital

Fortino Capital is a European investment company focused on high growth B2B software companies. From its offices in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, Fortino supports ambitious entrepreneurs and founders.

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Unveiling the Intersection of Private Equity and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Innovation and Value

Artificial Intelligence

Private Equity Ventures into the AI Frontier: Unveiling Investments in Cutting-Edge Technology

Private equity companies have long been at the forefront of identifying lucrative investment opportunities across various industries. In recent years, the convergence of finance and technology has paved the way for a new wave of investments in artificial intelligence (AI) companies. These ventures not only underscore the transformative potential of AI but also highlight the strategic foresight of private equity firms in capitalizing on disruptive technologies to drive growth and generate value.

The AI Revolution: Transforming Industries

Artificial intelligence, encompassing machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and predictive analytics, has emerged as a game-changer across numerous sectors. From healthcare and finance to retail and manufacturing, AI technologies are revolutionizing business operations, enhancing productivity, and enabling data-driven decision-making.

In healthcare, AI-powered algorithms are driving innovations in medical diagnosis, drug discovery, and personalized treatment plans. Financial institutions are leveraging AI for fraud detection, risk assessment, and algorithmic trading, while retailers utilize AI-driven insights for demand forecasting, inventory optimization, and customer engagement.

Private Equity’s Foray into AI: Strategic Investments

Private equity firms have recognized the immense potential of AI to disrupt traditional business models and drive competitive advantage. As such, they have actively sought investment opportunities in AI companies at various stages of development, from early-stage startups to established players poised for growth.

One notable example is the acquisition of AI startups specializing in machine learning and predictive analytics. Private equity firms have invested in companies developing AI-driven solutions for customer relationship management, marketing automation, and supply chain optimization, recognizing the value proposition of these technologies in enhancing operational efficiency and driving revenue growth.

Moreover, private equity companies have facilitated the expansion of AI companies through strategic mergers and acquisitions. By providing capital and operational expertise, private equity firms enable AI companies to scale their operations, penetrate new markets, and accelerate product development initiatives.

Case Studies: Private Equity Investments in AI

Several high-profile examples illustrate the growing interest of private equity in AI investments:

  1. Blackstone Group’s Acquisition of HealthEdge: In 2020, Blackstone Group acquired HealthEdge, a leading provider of healthcare IT solutions leveraging AI and machine learning. The acquisition aimed to capitalize on the growing demand for AI-driven healthcare technologies and position HealthEdge for accelerated growth and market expansion.
  2. KKR’s Investment in AppLovin: In 2018, KKR invested in AppLovin, a mobile advertising platform utilizing AI algorithms to optimize ad targeting and user engagement. KKR’s investment valued AppLovin at over $2 billion, highlighting the attractiveness of AI-driven advertising technologies to private equity investors.
  3. Thoma Bravo’s Acquisition of Sophos: In 2019, Thoma Bravo acquired Sophos, a cybersecurity company specializing in AI-powered threat detection and prevention. Thoma Bravo’s investment aimed to capitalize on the growing demand for AI-driven cybersecurity solutions and position Sophos as a market leader in the rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape.

Challenges and Opportunities

While private equity investments in AI present lucrative opportunities for value creation and portfolio diversification, they also entail certain risks and challenges. The rapid pace of technological innovation, regulatory uncertainty, and potential ethical concerns surrounding AI adoption are among the key considerations that private equity firms must navigate.

Furthermore, successful AI investments require a deep understanding of the technology landscape, as well as access to talent with expertise in data science, machine learning, and AI development. Private equity firms must also ensure alignment between their investment thesis and the long-term strategic objectives of AI companies to maximize returns and mitigate downside risks.

Looking Ahead: Shaping the Future of AI Investments

As AI continues to evolve and permeate various industries, private equity firms are expected to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of AI investments. By leveraging their capital, industry expertise, and operational capabilities, private equity companies can accelerate the growth and development of AI startups, drive consolidation within the AI ecosystem, and unlock new sources of value for their investors.

In conclusion, private equity investments in AI represent a convergence of financial acumen and technological innovation, with the potential to reshape industries and drive sustainable growth. As AI continues to gain prominence as a transformative force in the global economy, private equity firms are well-positioned to capitalize on emerging opportunities and generate outsized returns for their stakeholders.

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Clearlake Capital Group and Insight Partners complete acquisition of Alteryx

Clearlake

Acquisition will accelerate Alteryx’s innovation in AI and cloud analytics

 

IRVINE, Calif., Mar. 19, 2024 – Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. (“Clearlake”) and Insight Partners L.P. (“Insight”) today announced that their affiliated funds have completed the acquisition of Alteryx, Inc., a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) for enterprise analytics. The transaction was previously announced on December 18, 2023 and approved by Alteryx stockholders on March 13, 2024.

 

“We believe the Alteryx AI and cloud analytics platform provides powerful and differentiated solutions that enable customers to gain critical insights from data driven workflows, ultimately leading to meaningful productivity and efficiency gains for these organizations,” said Behdad Eghbali, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Clearlake and Prashant Mehrotra, Partner and Managing Director at Clearlake. “In partnership with Insight, we are excited to collaborate with the company’s talented employee base and believe that through Clearlake’s O.P.S.® framework and sector expertise, Alteryx will have the resources to accelerate its product innovation and continue to provide valuable solutions to customers.”

 

“Insight has had a front-row seat to Alteryx’s evolution, and we are thrilled to partner with the company as it continues to lead across AI and analytics markets,” said Deven Parekh and Ryan Hinkle, each a Managing Director at Insight Partners. “With a strong and loyal customer base and an exceptionally talented team, we are confident in Alteryx’s ability to excel in this fast-evolving market landscape to reach its full potential.”

 

As a result of the completion of the transaction, Alteryx stockholders will receive $48.25 in cash for each share of Alteryx Class A or Class B common stock that they own. Alteryx is now a privately held company and its common stock has ceased trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

 

Advisors

Qatalyst Partners LP served as exclusive financial advisor, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Professional Corporation and Fenwick & West LLP served as legal advisors to Alteryx.

Houlihan Lokey, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC served as financial advisors to Clearlake and Insight.

Sidley Austin LLP served as legal advisor to Clearlake.

Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP served as legal advisor to Insight.

ABOUT ALTERYX

Alteryx powers actionable insights with the AI Platform for Enterprise Analytics. With Alteryx, organizations can drive smarter, faster decisions with a secure platform deployable in on-prem, hybrid, and cloud environments. More than 8,000 customers globally rely on Alteryx to automate analytics to improve revenue performance, manage costs, and mitigate risks across their organizations.

 

Alteryx is a registered trademark of Alteryx, Inc. All other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

 

ABOUT CLEARLAKE

Founded in 2006, Clearlake is an investment firm operating integrated businesses across private equity, credit, and other related strategies. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with experienced management teams by providing patient, long term capital to dynamic businesses that can benefit from Clearlake’s operational improvement approach, O.P.S.® The firm’s core target sectors are technology, industrials, and consumer. Clearlake currently has over $75 billion of assets under management, and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 400 investments. The firm is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA with affiliates in Dallas, TX, London, UK, Dublin, Ireland, and Singapore.

 

ABOUT INSIGHT PARTNERS

Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of December 31, 2023, the firm has over $80 billion in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 800 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and the Bay Area. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with tailored, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on X @insightpartners.

 

Media Contacts

 

ALTERYX

Emily Valla

Alteryx, Inc.

pr@alteryx.com

CLEARLAKE

Jennifer Hurson

Lambert

jhurson@lambert.com

INSIGHT

Insight Partners Public Relations

insightpr@insightpartners.com

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