Artificial intelligence this, artificial intelligence that. Everybody talks about artificial intelligence today. However, some people have been not just talking about it, but are actively implementing AI and ML technologies into their products. And there is at least one good reason for this. In 2020, the analytical company CB Insights published its annual rating “AI 100 Artificial Intelligence startups in the world”. It includes 100 leading companies developing AI products for a variety of industries and areas.
The companies included in the ranking have raised a total of more than $7.4 billion in investments with approximately 600 different investors, concluding more than 300 deals. $7.4 billion! Now it is clear why startupers’ interest in AI and ML flares up like a Boy Scout fire. And these are only those who were included in the report. According to PwC/CB Insights MoneyTree Report, for the first quarter of 2020, companies working in the field of artificial intelligence attracted a staggering $16.5 billion. Startupers, investors, and market analysts all agree that the potential for AI solutions is enormous. As a result, Crunchbase now has more than 9,000 registered startups and companies that rely on machine learning for their core and secondary applications.
However, as part of this material, we will probably omit a couple of thousands of projects and focus on 5 startups with AI onboard that are worth paying attention to and will be curious to watch in 2021.
-
Persado
A marketing proposal forming platform
Industry: Marketing
Have you ever thought about clicking on the tantalizing discount offered to you in a marketing email? Perhaps it’s the work of an American startup Persado, which uses AI and data science to create a marketing language that suits you best. The company’s algorithms study what the brand hopes to deliver to potential customers, offer the most effective approach and it works. In 2019, Persado signed contracts with major corporations such as JPMorgan Chase, which signed a five-year contract to use the company’s AI in its marketing. Over the past three years, Persado claims it has doubled its annual current revenue. As for investments, at the time of writing, the startup has already raised $66 million.
Alex Vratskides, CEO and co-founder of Persado, emphasized that the company is focused on helping the world’s most famous brands to fully realize their business objectives. Chase, Humana, AmEx, Vodafone, Microsoft, and Verizon Wireless rely on Persado to create content in a completely new way, based on the emotional involvement of consumers.
Brands can no longer afford to develop content and creative solutions relying solely on intuition and inspiration. The Persado AI platform shows that the combination of human ingenuity with data is unstoppable. By taking the right approach to the customer, brands gain a new level of audience engagement, and so a new level of revenue. According to developers, when using their product customers’ conversion increases by at least 41%.
The platform neural network selects the most correct phrases to call for action, for example, a positive language that brands so like to use (phrases like “Today is your lucky day”, etc.) is sometimes perceived cautiously, and does not increase the attractiveness of the product, but on the contrary, repels the client. Speech Analyzer avoids the wording of an excellent degree, hyperbolic techniques, and capital letters where they are not needed. The system evaluates dynamic speech variables and avoids visually disturbing formulations, inappropriate smileys, etc.
Example of how Persado forms certain messages based on human emotions
The platform uses sophisticated AI, data science, computer linguistics, and machine learning to create the perfect message for the client. The language knowledge base includes over a million keywords and phrases. Using this “smart” platform, brands create the most attractive advertising slogans or mailings. Complex analytics shows how close the language of the advertising message is to the client. Based on analytics, companies can create messages that are as effective as they can’t, relying solely on intuition. Persado’s creative approach is sustainable, it clearly demonstrates that companies using speech analysis and artificial intelligence will outpace their competitors and be able to maintain market advantage.
-
Bioforumis
The patient treatment monitoring platform
Industry: Healthcare
According to the MRC Strategy, the global health AI market was $0.95 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $19.25 billion by 2026, with an average annual growth rate of 39.7%. Not surprisingly, many startupers want to bite off a piece of this pie. Kuldip Singh Rajput, who gave up Ph.D. and set an ambitious goal was no exception, and in 2019 he is already in the Forbes Asia rating “30 under 30”. His Boston-based company Biofourmis uses artificial intelligence technology to predict medical complications. Data obtained from the trackers of his Biofourmis startup can help make decisions about the treatment of patients and prescribe them medications. Using artificial intelligence technology, Biofourmis helps treat patients with cardiovascular diseases and remotely monitor the health of people with other diseases. In particular, the algorithms are able to recognize sleep apnea, cardiac arrhythmias, and other potentially dangerous conditions and warn doctors about the patient’s state and possible complications.
In November 2019, Biofourmis started collaborating with the pharmaceutical giant Novartis. As part of a joint project, Biofourmis sensors and analytics will be used to monitor the health status of patients from Southeast Asia who are taking a drug for heart failure called Entresto from Novartis. Recently, Biofourmis has proven that it can quickly change and adapt to new conditions both in the market and globally. In January, when the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning, the company mainly dealt with patients with cardiovascular, respiratory, and oncological diseases. As early as February, Rajput’s team quickly established a new program to help governments around the world, including Hong Kong and Singapore, and focused on remote health care for patients infected with the coronavirus.
One of the main technical solutions in this area was a special bracelet produced by Biovotion, which was absorbed by Biofourmis last year. This bracelet, which can be easily connected to the application, constantly analyzes the patient’s biomarkers for different signals. As a result, the patient’s attending physician receives all the data about the patient’s health condition. In the last five months, the Biofourmis application and the bracelet have been used by more than 100,000 people infected with COVID-19.
On September 2, 2020, Biofourmis announced the closing of investment round C, during which the company attracted $100 million from Softbank Investment Advisers and other investors. The funding raised will be used to develop new products, including digital therapeutic solutions for cancer and chronic pain.
-
H2O.ai
AI solutions creation platform
Industry: Enterprise Software
The H2O.ai team from California provides an open-source machine learning platform to simplify the development of data-based applications. The H2O.ai platform is used by data professionals and developers to create, test, and scale algorithms. The platform itself is a set of tools and instructions for data collection, without the need to contact teams of specialists. Today, the company’s platform is used by nearly half of Fortune 500 participants and is trusted by more than 18,000 organizations and hundreds of thousands of scientists around the world.
The company’s flagship product, the Driverless AI, takes its name from the fact that it allows people who are not AI experts to take advantage of AI without a team of experts. Driverless AI – a product of machine learning, which automatically performs the work of experts on the data of the world level and so brings their capabilities into the hands of each person. This program creates models automatically, using all sorts of machine learning algorithms. For a better understanding of how it happens, watch the video.
The H2O.ai data team has developed algorithms for things like credit risk assessment, anomaly detection, and open source real estate valuation. Today, the company has about 175 clients, but the company’s representatives do not disclose the exact number of clients.
Startup for several years in a row has a high position in Gartner Magic Quadrant.
Today H2O.ai applications are used to predict fraud, customer churn, and solve many complex customer problems. Cisco, PayPal, and Progressive are important clients of the company. H2O.ai also works with leading technology companies such as NVIDIA, IBM, AWS, Intel, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform and is proud of its growing client base, which includes Capital One, Nationwide Insurance, Walgreens, Wells Fargo, and MarketAxess. As a result of recent investments, the total amount of raised funds has reached $147 million.
-
Wint
Water leak monitoring platform
Industry: Industrial systems
Wint startup creates software that can help stop water leaks. This may not seem like a big deal, but in commercial buildings, more than 25% of water is wasted often due to undisclosed leaks. That’s why the company launched a machine learning tool that can detect water leaks and anomalies in water use.
The company comes from Israel, where the water is worth its weight in gold. Wint uses a comprehensive system of “smart” valves, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and communication systems to save enterprises significant amounts of water and costs. Since the price of water will only rise over time, this technology promises a fairly fast and constant return on investment.
Wint is able to detect a leak within hours.
Wint uses artificial intelligence, which constantly studies how water is used at the site. It studies local water usage patterns and combines them with the knowledge that the company has gained from studying water usage in thousands of communities. This allows the AI to detect any anomalies in water use, overuse, or even the slightest leaks in real-time. Administrators have the opportunity to choose what to do when a leak is detected – automatic water shutdown, manual shutdown, alerts, and much more. In addition, the company operates a global 24-hour control center, where all Wint systems are constantly monitored.
In 2019, the company’s attention to a pressing environmental issue helped it increase revenue by 400% and also drew the attention of Fortune 100 companies, one of which reports that Wint has reduced their water consumption by 24 percent.
-
Rosetta.ai
Software to increase conversion in sales
Industry: E-commerce
Today, almost a quarter of the planet is shopping online. This contributes to the fact that last year in the U.S. was sold through the Internet physical goods worth more than $365b USD, and by 2024 it is planned to spend more than 600 billion dollars. In many ways, this will be due not only to the wider spread of mobile internet shopping but also to the higher level of openness and buying experience than in retail stores.
The e-commerce world is dominated by large brands, but the technology that surrounds us makes it easier to launch the products we sell and our own brand on the Internet. But without budgets and recognition, how can a new product stand up to the competition? For this, we have Rosetta, a startup from Taiwan. Rosetta helps e-commerce organizations increase conversion rates and order values through in-depth learning technologies. The AI studies individual customer preferences and practices, anticipates future sales, and provides personalized recommendations for online and offline trading.
According to the startup’s founders, one of the biggest problems in e-commerce occurs after consumers enter the site: it is necessary to eliminate as many inhibiting moments in the customer journey as possible to deliver the most relevant information quickly and easily. By improving consumer experience and data collection algorithms, even small D2C brands can reliably increase conversion rates and customer retention.
Rosetta receives information from each individual customer and displays the most relevant information. It does this using data on past purchases, intentions to buy something (addition to the shopping cart), viewings, and much more. In turn, brands can improve product recommendations when a consumer returns an item, or through email marketing or retargeting advertising. Brands also benefit from a stock forecasting model, with which they can ensure that they always have enough products, as lack of stock is a huge hole in the jousting customer. The system also helps retailers find “green spaces” for pricing their products.
Since its launch in 2017, the Rosetta.AI team has already gathered over 70 commercial customers, and their platform has provided over 120 million recommendations. By touching more than four million customers, the team is proud to have increased the average speed of customer conversion by as much as 25 percent!
So, here are a few startups to which you can look up to if you want to create your own AI project in 2021. Who knows, maybe it’s your brainchild that will be another big event in the coming year. The main thing is to find your niche, preferably the one that is now empty and most in-demand, and create, create, create. The potential of AI and ML is huge – so why not use it!
Leave a Reply