“Above the Trend Line” – Your Industry Rumor Central for 9/14/2022

Above the Trend Line: your industry rumor central is a recurring feature of insideAI News. In this column, we present a variety of short time-critical news items grouped by category such as M&A activity, people movements, funding news, industry partnerships, customer wins, rumors and general scuttlebutt floating around the big data, data science and machine learning industries including behind-the-scenes anecdotes and curious buzz. Our intent is to provide you a one-stop source of late-breaking news to help you keep abreast of this fast-paced ecosystem. We’re working hard on your behalf with our extensive vendor network to give you all the latest happenings. Heard of something yourself? Tell us! Just e-mail me at: daniel@insideAINews.com. Be sure to Tweet Above the Trend Line articles using the hashtag: #abovethetrendline.

Let’s kick-start our rumor mill with some new funding news … Diveplane, the company keeping humanity in artificial intelligence (AI), announced it has raised $25M in Series A funding. The round was led by Shield Capital, with Calibrate Ventures, L3Harris Technologies and Sigma Defense also participating. The funds provide Diveplane with the opportunity to invest further in its award-winning AI solutions, while facilitating targeted growth to meet increased market demand. As part of the agreement, Philip Bilden, Managing Partner of Shield Capital, will join the Diveplane board of directors. Diveplane helps businesses and government organizations concerned with data privacy to better understand and leverage the power of their data through AI tools that are trainable, interpretable and auditable. The company’s solutions are designed around the principles of predict, explain and show, creating user confidence that operational decisions are built on a foundation of fairness and transparency … Tarci (formerly Leadgence), a continuous intelligence engine that generates dynamic data on Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB), announced that the company has raised $17 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Sound Ventures, with participation from Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and additional strategic investors … PolyAI, a leading provider of enterprise voice assistants, has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Georgian with participation from Twilio Ventures as well as existing investors (Khosla Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Amadeus Capital Partners), bringing its total funding to $70 million … StarTree, Inc. announced $47 million in Series B funding to accelerate product development, expand sales and marketing, and continue to drive fast adoption of its real-time analytics platform. The funding round was led by Series A investor GGV Capital, with additional investment from new investor Sapphire Ventures and existing investors Bain Capital Ventures and CRV. StarTree has raised a total of $75 million to date. StarTree was founded by the original creators of Apache Pinot™, the real-time distributed OLAP data store proven at scale by LinkedIn, Cisco, DoorDash, Etsy, Hyundai, Razorpay, 7-Eleven,Target, Uber, Walmart, Microsoft and many other data-driven leaders.

In M&A news we have … Algolia, a leading API-First Search & Discovery Platform, announced the acquisition of Search.io, whose flagship product is Neuralsearch™ – a vector search engine that uses hashing technology on top of vectors to provide unprecedented price performance at scale. Algolia will combine its market leading keyword search and Search.io’s Neuralsearch into a single API … Bright Data, a leading web data platform, has announced the acquisition of eCommerce insights provider Market Beyond. With this acquisition, Bright Data adds digital shelf analytics to its already comprehensive data offerings, introducing its new division – Bright Insights. Market Beyond’s team will join Bright Data’s 400+-strong team, where they will lead the newly established Bright Insights division. This dedicated team will roll out Bright Insights to the company’s enterprise retail customer base with plans to expand in the future to further domains … Blattner Technologies, on a mission to be the leading provider of Predictive TransformationTM services and tools in the Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning industry has acquired BOSS AI, as a wholly owned subsidiary. Building on a 115-year legacy of innovation by the Blattner family of businesses, Blattner Technologies recognizes the cutting-edge work and industry-changing BOSS AI Enterprise platform as a valuable asset to their growing list of related companies and partners. BOSS AI is the data technology powerhouse made up of leading AI industry experts and data scientists who have developed a proprietary Federated Machine Learning solution.

In the new customer wins department we learned … Datometry, the pioneer of database virtualization, announced that Deutsche Lufthansa AG, has selected the Datometry virtualization platform to accelerate the modernization of its on-premises data warehouse to Microsoft Azure Synapse. The Datometry Hyper-Q virtualization platform is the first to make databases and applications fully interoperable, and will enable the Lufthansa Group to re-platform to the cloud without disrupting existing business processes … SiFive, Inc., the founder and leader of RISC-V computing, announced it has been selected by NASA to provide the core CPU for NASA’s next generation High-Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) processor. HPSC is expected to be used in virtually every future space mission, from planetary exploration to lunar and Mars surface missions. HPSC will utilize an 8-core, SiFive® Intelligence™ X280 RISC-V vector core, as well as four additional SiFive RISC-V cores, to deliver 100x the computational capability of today’s space computers. This massive increase in computing performance will help usher in new possibilities for a variety of mission elements such as autonomous rovers, vision processing, space flight, guidance systems, communications, and other applications … SingleStore, the cloud-native database built for speed and scale to power data-intensive applications, unveiled Captain Metrics, DataDock Solutions, Dell Technologies, Digital Asset Research, Foodics, impact.com and Thentia as customers. Customer acquisition spanning multiple use cases and industries is just one factor in SingleStore’s impressive momentum, as the company officially reached unicorn status by closing a $116 million.

In the new partnerships, alignments and collaborations category we heard … APARAVI®, the company behind the award-winning Aparavi Data Intelligence and Automation Platform, the trusted disruptor in unstructured data management and Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ: STX), a world leader in mass-data storage infrastructure solutions, have announced their collaboration enabling customers to intelligently manage and migrate their growing unstructured data sets to Seagate Lyve Cloud, the object storage for multicloud freedom … Italian Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) specialist, Tattile, part of TKH Group, announced its technology partnership with leading edge AI chipmaker Hailo to power their next generation of high-end cameras: the “SMART+.” The Hailo-8™ AI processor will be integrated into Tattile’s new product line, enabling a new era of smart cameras for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), mobility and smart cities … UiPath (NYSE: PATH), a leading enterprise automation software company, announced it has strengthened its partnership with Snowflake, the Data Cloud company, by launching a new bi-directional integration that will extend the value of automation across the enterprise. UiPath and Snowflake are enabling joint customers to design and build workflows based on 360-degree views of trusted and accessible data on Snowflake’s platform. By leveraging the Snowflake Data Cloud, UiPath robots can quickly connect data directly to business processes in the Data Cloud without using complex code, speeding up time to value … MariaDB® Corporation and Qlik® announced a collaboration to power customer data migrations from legacy database architectures to MariaDB’s modern and scalable database solutions. Using Qlik’s Data Integration platform, customers can easily migrate data from any legacy database source, such as Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server, to MariaDB Enterprise Server, MariaDB Xpand distributed SQL database or MariaDB SkySQL cloud database service, delivering business-ready data at a fraction of the cost of legacy databases. The collaboration ensures high availability, scalability, continuous integration and replication of synced data across on-premises, hybrid and cloud in a few, simple steps … Syniti, a global leader in enterprise data management, announced a new partnership with TD SYNNEX, a global IT distributor and solutions aggregator formed through the merger of Tech Data and Synnex. This partnership will provide enterprises with new access to Syniti’s award-winning data management solutions. The first solution available through this new partnership is Syniti Replicate, a data replication software with change data capture that enables the timely, relevant data enterprises need to make critical business decisions and support transformative experiences … Apollo GraphQL, the supergraph company, and MongoDB, Inc., announced a technology partnership that empowers app developers to build richer experiences faster, and reduce technical debt with a graph-native data layer. The partnership makes it easier for developers and teams to directly connect any supergraph powered by Apollo to a MongoDB Atlas database … Yewno, a pioneer in Artificial Intelligence-based research solutions, and Integrated Library System provider SirsiDynix have partnered together to provide a best-in-class solution for disambiguation and next generation discovery. Together, they are offering their enhanced search technology, Yewno Disambiguate and Yewno Relate, via the SirsiDynix CloudSource OA platform … MinIO Inc., creators of the MinIO Multi-Cloud Object Storage suite, announced the launch of a joint business relationship with PwC Canada to build, co-sell, and co-market cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions to Canadian enterprises across industries. With MinIO, customers get a high performance, Kubernetes-native, software-defined S3 compatible object store. Together, the companies will focus on the democratization of data through AI/ML applications. MinIO and PwC aspire to deliver a unified semantic layer through which all applications, all users in the enterprise, all processes in the enterprise, can seamlessly, frictionlessly, and transparently interoperate with all of the decentralized, distributed, federated, heterogeneous data … PwC Germany, a leading auditing and consulting firm in Germany, and Monitaur, an AI governance software company, announced that they have formed a strategic partnership to advance AI governance to meet the demands of European AI regulatory compliance. Responsible and ethical AI is a cross-functional business challenge. To deliver assurances, organizations need to implement life cycle governance and auditing practices. Unfortunately, the gap between such strategies and day-to-day operations is wide. This partnership will deliver repeatable and scalable life cycle governance and assurances … SQream, the developer of a hybrid platform for rapid data analytics at scale, and Hitachi Vantara, a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., and leader in the field of data management and digital infrastructure solutions, are collaborating to offer solutions that will enable large organizations to better utilize analytic systems like Hadoop-Hive, Cloudera and Teradata to accelerate critical insights and run AI/ML models over even the largest data using SQream’s data acceleration platform and Hitachi Vantara’s innovative object storage offerings … Upstream Works announced a strategic partnership with Simplifai, a provider of AI technologies. Upstream Works helps companies worldwide transform their customer experiences, including industries such as Healthcare, Financial Services, Insurance, Utilities, and more. The partnership with Simplifai enables Upstream Works to support its mission to simplify and optimize the agent desktop experience and remove complexities from agents’ workdays with AI-powered guidance and intelligent CX resolutions … HHS Technology Group, LLC™ (HTG); Datavant, a leader in helping organizations securely connect health data; and Mathematica announced they are collaborating to offer public and private sector access to invaluable resources to fight the invisible epidemic of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and long-term COVID-19. HTG, Datavant, and Mathematica have designed a real-time data-analysis platform that captures, aggregates, matches, and evaluates data across various sources, including Medicare, Medicaid, hospitals, labs, physician offices, and commercial payers. With actionable insights from this rich data, medical providers can identify and intervene with patients at risk of developing CKD and long COVID earlier than conventional means … alwaysAI, a computer vision platform leader, announces their partnership with Seeed Studio, an AIoT hardware platform. This partnership delivers an AI solution that accelerates the deployment of computer vision applications on Seeed’s edge devices by integrating the alwaysAI computer vision platform … nRoad, Inc., a purpose-built natural-language processing (NLP) platform for unstructured data in the financial services sector and the first company to declare a “War on Documents,” announced a new partnership with Merchants United LLC, a leader in business merchant services and enterprise solutions for payments. In a move that will vastly improve the way payment processing and lending companies analyze merchants, nRoad and Merchants United have combined efforts to automate the analysis of merchant prospecting and credit risk by extracting and analyzing information from merchant related documents, including merchant statements.

In people movement news we have … Crossing Minds, the company behind the smart and efficient recommendation platform for business, announced the hiring of Ching-Wei Chen as VP of Engineering. Chen brings a comprehensive background in machine learning and product development and will lead the expansion of Crossing Minds’ engineering team … CognitiveScale, a leading Platform for AI Engineering, announced the appointment of Joel Horwitz as Vice President Of Business Development. Horwitz most recently served as the owner of the boutique digital transformation agency, Neoteric3D, an independent consultancy firm that he launched,. Horwitz also serves as the Strategic Advisor & Growth Investor, overseeing Product Strategy and Growth for a number of Data & AI portfolio companies. Horwitz will support the company’s future growth by developing strategic AI platform partnerships by forming alliances and channel partner programs … Recently launched MatrixSpace announced the appointment of AI and machine learning expert Nihar Nanda PhD as Head of AI Products, responsible for AI product development. In this role he will lead the development of AI for networked radar. Nihar brings a track record of developing AI and Machine Learning applications at-scale. Most recently he was VP, ML and AI at Parallel Wireless and before that Chief Technologist for cloud and big data at Dell Technologies … Polestar Solutions, a leading player in data analytics and enterprise performance management (EPM) announced that Siddharth Poddar has joined their leadership team as Senior Vice President to lead Procurement Analytics globally. In his role as Global Procurement Analytics Lead, Siddharth will be responsible for developing advanced procurement analytics solutions for clients leveraging cutting-edge data sciences. In addition to the procurement vertical, Siddharth will also oversee growth of the data analytics solution in the Oil & Gas Industry. The focus on the procurement practice and Oil & Gas industry comes on the heels of Polestar Solutions’ expansion into the US market … Dataiku, the platform for Everyday AI, announced the appointment of Daniel Brennan as its new Chief Legal Officer. Brennan, who previously spent more than a decade at Twitter, joins the company during a surge of enterprise demand, traction and exceptional customer retention rates … EDJX, a pioneer in decentralized global serverless edge computing, today announced that it has hired a new CEO while simultaneously raising a seed round of funding. EDJX’s CEO Benjamin Thomas has assumed day-to-day leadership of the company and joined EDJX’s Board of Directors. Thomas is a serial entrepreneur and founder of two companies, which combined sold for over two hundred million dollars in enterprise value to strategic acquirers on less than $60 million in equity investment … Hammerspace, a pioneer of the Global Data Environment, announced the appointment of John Harechmak as the new Worldwide Vice President of Systems Engineering and Customer Success. In this role, Harechmak leads the solution architect team, oversees post-sales implementation and customer education, and ensures ongoing customer success. With Harechmak, Hammerspace rounds out a talented senior leadership team with a wealth of technology experience from organizations including Avere, Cohesity, DataDirect Networks (DDN), Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), FusionIO, NetApp, Panzura, Quantum, Qumulo, and Veritas/Symantec, among others … Yellowbrick Data, a leader in Distributed Data Cloud architecture for data warehousing, announced that Robert Potts has joined the Company as Vice President of North American Sales. Leading Yellowbrick’s sales team in North America, Potts joins the company with deep experience in tech, SaaS, and databases both on-prem and cloud from a 20-year career at companies such as Net App, Dell, EMC, and Snowflake. Potts held sales leadership roles in all those organizations and most recently led the West Coast teams at H2O.ai. The new position will report to Marc Fields, SVP of Global Sales.

Deep Learning Patent Update – provided by Nelson E. (Nick) Brestoff, J.D., M.S. Exec. Manager & Chief Inventor, Intraspexion LLC. August 30th was the last day of the 8th month of 2022, and there were 881 new patents for the year, so far. Projecting out, the 2022 total may come to 1,322, which is more than 2021’s total of 1,104. However, the rate of growth appears to be slowing.

Note: X-axis denotes years from 2001-2022

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