Tag:

young inventors

Menlo Ventures closes on $1.35B in new capital and targets investments in AI startups.

by Alex Turner November 17, 2023

written by Alex Turner

According to an announcement by Menlo Ventures today, the venture capital firm has successfully collected $1.35 billion in fresh funding, which it intends to utilize “to support the forthcoming generation of AI startups.”

It should come as no surprise that the company is currently highly optimistic about the future of artificial intelligence, given that it has already supported companies such as Abnormal, Anthropic, Cleanlab, Pinecone, and Typeface. However, it is notable that the company is now quite bullish on the future of artificial intelligence.

Venky Ganesan, a partner at Menlo Ventures, said in an emailed statement, “An investment does not have to be in artificial intelligence, but we believe that’s where the most exciting innovations will spark.” “That being said, we also believe that as AI becomes more advanced, we will increasingly rely on AI-powered tools and services to make us faster, smarter, and better at what we do. This is something that we believe will continue to happen.” When this occurs, artificial intelligence will stop being shocking and become a normal, if not anticipated, collaborator throughout the day. To keep up with the competition and maintain their relevance in this new era of AI, many businesses already operating in the market but whose goods and services did not include any AI-based capabilities have rushed swiftly to integrate these capabilities into their offerings.

The company reports that it has raised over $3.8 billion across eight different fund groups and has disbursed $5.2 billion to its limited partners (LPs) thanks to the new funds. The new funding will be invested from the company’s flagship venture fund, Menlo XVI, which focuses on the seed to Series A stages; Menlo Inflection III, which focuses on Series B and beyond; and their connected funds. The company has been in business for 46 years.

The Bay Area company, famous for its early bets on firms such as Uber and Warby Parker, informed the regulatory bodies that it had acquired $761.4 million for its third “special opportunities” fund in July 2022. In October 2020, Menlo Ventures completed Fund XV, a financing of $500 million. It is currently managing $5.6 billion in assets at this time.

Menlo has seen the departure of 80 portfolio firms throughout its history, 15 of which have gone public. Getaround, Carbonite, Gilead, Roku, and Rover are some firms that fall within this category.

The company also claims that it made seed and early-stage investments in 24 unicorns operating in the enterprise, consumer, and healthcare industries and oversaw the acquisition of 65 of the firms in its portfolio. These firms that have been bought out include, amongst others, StrataCam, which Cisco purchased; Tenor, which Google purchased; and PillPack, which Amazon purchased.

Recent investments made by Menlo include guiding the Series B financing for $40 million by Finch and the round for $34 million by Sana Labs. In addition, as indicated above, it participated in the $450 million capital raising that AI darling Anthropic completed in May.

In a blog post, the company expressed its outlook on the future: “AI represents a seismic shift that will add trillions of dollars in value to the global economy, and Menlo will help write the next chapter.” Despite this, the company plans to continue investing in startups across the following categories: healthcare and digital health, consumer, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, fintech, and SaaS.

These days, Menlo isn’t the only venture capital company that’s raising more than a billion dollars in funding. In October, Greylock Partners announced the launch of two new initiatives: a $1 billion early-stage fund, the firm’s 17th, and the second was Greylock Edge, a program that helps creators grow ideas into companies with early revenue and product market fit.

November 17, 2023 0 comment

STARTUPS

Inito, a startup that helps women quickly track fertility hormones at home, raises $6M

by Alex Turner November 16, 2023

written by Alex Turner

A company that has completed the Y Combinator accelerator program completed the Series A fundraising round for Inito, which Fireside Ventures led and had a total funding of $6 million. The fertility monitor and kit offered by the new company are intended to provide consumers with simple-to-read fertility diagnostic findings that are shown straight on their phone in only ten minutes.

Aayush Rai, the company’s current CEO, and Varun A. Venkatesan, the current CTO, both formerly worked for the multinational MedTech corporation Siemens. The Bengaluru, India-based firm was established in 2015. While Rai was working on product development, Venkatesan was conducting research for medical devices and supplies. The two individuals became close when paddling together on Sundays. They had conversations about how they wanted to spend their lives doing something that had a real and positive effect on other people’s lives. They ultimately decided to quit their employment and launch Inito to develop tools that would allow individuals to better understand and control their health at home.

Standard at-home ovulation tests forecast your fertile days by monitoring estrogen and luteinizing hormone (LH). Still, they do not detect the hormone that verifies your ovulation, the progesterone metabolite PdG. PdG is a byproduct of the conversion of progesterone to another hormone. On a single test strip, Inito detects estrogen, luteinizing hormone (LH), progesterone metabolite (PdG), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH).

The monitor, test strips, and access to the Inito app are all included in the package as standard. The monitor is designed to be attached to your smartphone and can scan high-density test strips accurately. Inito will remind you to take a pregnancy test on specific days and walk you through the process step-by-step once you have registered for the app and inputted your cycle information. After soaking the test strip in urine, you attach the monitor to your phone and place it on the monitor. After that, you insert the test strip.

When using other types of standard tests, you will receive “yes/no” answers, and you will need to use a variety of test strips to keep a record of fertile days and verify ovulation. Inito gives you the exact numerical values of your reproductive hormones and tailors the findings to your body. It provides a complete picture of your fertile window of six days and also verifies whether or not you truly ovulated by analyzing the rise in the progesterone metabolite PdG.

According to the organization, if you have irregular menstrual cycles, you need genuine data to pinpoint exactly when you ovulate and when the optimal moment is for you to attempt to conceive a child.

“Unlike other products that leave the interpretation of hormone values up to the user, our app looks at the evolution of four hormones together and determines if the fertility rating for that day is low, high, or peak and if ovulation has indeed occurred in this cycle,” Rai told TechCrunch. “Ovulation has indeed occurred in this cycle.” “Using the most recent developments in artificial intelligence, we have taken this one step further by providing an explanation in natural language as to why a result was given.”

The Inito Fertility Monitor has been granted clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be sold as a Class I medical device, which means it does not need to comply with the FDA’s premarket notice filing requirements.

The fertility monitor beginning set costs $149 and comes with 15 test strips in addition to the actual monitoring gadget. The cost of a pack of refill strips is $49. Both goods are offered for sale on Amazon as well as on Inito.

The business intends to use the newly acquired funds to develop even more cutting-edge analytics with the assistance of AI. According to Rai, the fact that users of Inito have completed over 2.5 million tests provides the firm with a vast data set to train its algorithms on the interaction of the four primary hormones present throughout a menstrual cycle. The new company intends to develop a system that would enable users to link their symptoms, moods, sleep habits, and prescriptions to the hormones in their bodies.

Inito is also interested in expanding the scope of its commercial operations. The startup company’s software is currently only available on iOS, but Inito plans to create an Android version with the additional funding it has received. In addition, Inito is interested in investing in research and development for new goods.

“While fertility hormone testing is our first product, this funding raise will allow us to invest in R&D for new tests that cater to solving problems faced by both patients and practitioners,” Rai added. “These problems include infertility, miscarriage, and low birth weight.” We are developing point-of-care assays to monitor the health of pregnancies, ovarian reserves, and male fertility hormones. Our technique uses a mix of hardware, biotechnology, and machine learning to increase the accuracy, reliability, and density of test strips. This allows them to assess several parameters on a single testing platform.

With the completion of this round, Inito has now successfully raised a total of $15 million in investment. Y Combinator, former Nurx CEO Varsha Rao, and a dozen physicians and family offices were among the investors who provided the firm’s first funding of $9 million.

Regarding the long-term goals that the company has set for itself, the company thinks that every human being should have access to medical treatment and data on their own bodies.

“We want to bring a variety of tests for fertility and beyond onto a single device at home, empowering people with direct access to health information and fostering a better understanding of their bodies and health conditions,” Venkatesan added. “We look forward to the day when Inito will be present in all homes and be as commonplace as a thermometer,” said one of the company’s employees.

November 16, 2023 0 comment

Inspiring Stories

HBCU Grad Makes History as First Black President of the Academy of Physicians in Clinical Research (APCR)

by Alex Turner November 16, 2023

written by Alex Turner

A respected gynecologist who practices in New Orleans and Shreveport, Louisiana, Dr. Leonard Weather, Jr., RPh, MD, FAPCR, was recently chosen to serve as President of the Academy of Physicians in Clinical Research (APCR). Dr. Weather is the first African American in the organization’s long history to hold this prestigious post, and he now accepts those responsibilities.

Dr. Weather has an extensive academic history, including earning degrees in pharmacy and medicine from Howard University and Rush Medical College. Both institutions are located in Chicago, Illinois. After completing his internship, residency, and fellowship in gynecology and obstetrics at the illustrious Johns Hopkins University Hospital, he went on to further perfect his specialty via extensive training.
Dr. Weather is a multitalented man who, in addition to his achievements in the field of medicine, serves as an educator in the field of health, a professor, an ordained pastor, an artist, an author, and a photographer. His creative works include three collections of motivational poems, a guidebook on infertility, and his most recent book, Endometriosis: The Name of the Pain and How to Repress It, published in June 2023.

Dr. Weather specializes in the pelviscopic surgical treatment of infertility, endometriosis, pelvic pain, and uterine fibroids. As an active gynecological clinical trials researcher, he has delivered more than 210 articles and presentations that his peers have evaluated. He is credited with creating the innovative surgical process called Optical Dissection Pelviscopy. This is a ground-breaking breakthrough in laparoscopic surgery that helps prevent organ harm. In addition, he is credited with inventing the revolutionary surgical treatment known as Optical Dissection Pelviscopy.

As a past president of the National Medical Association, the Louisiana Medical Association, and the New Orleans Medical Association, Dr. Weather’s influence may be felt well beyond the APCR. He also served in the same capacity for the New Orleans Medical Association. He now serves as the National President of Chi Delta Mu Medical Fraternity and as a board member on the State of Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners. In addition, he is a member of the Chi Delta Mu Medical Fraternity.

The Advancement of Clinical Practice, Academic Research, and Pharmaceutical Industry Engagement in Clinical Research (Clinical Trials) is the mission of the Association for Practice and Research in Clinical Medicine (APCR), a non-profit membership organization. Its purpose involves the prevention and cure of illnesses, as well as the protection of patients’ and research subjects’ welfare, and it does this by acquiring, disseminating, and evaluating knowledge about the creation of medicines and medical devices.

The APCR is an essential forum for furthering the education, professional development, qualification, and certification of medical practitioners participating in clinical research initiatives. It is the only body within the American Medical Association (AMA) representing the physician research community. As a result, it can influence national legislation on various topics relating to clinical research.

When it comes to his position as President of the APCR, Dr. Weather brings a lot of knowledge, passion, and vision with him. His historic election is a monument to his significant contributions to the profession of medicine and his dedication to the advancement of clinical research.

November 16, 2023 0 comment

STARTUPS

Ida uses AI to prevent grocery food waste.

by Ava Robinson November 16, 2023

written by Ava Robinson

Ida is a relatively young French business interested in collaborating with supermarkets and grocery shops to improve the efficiency of new orders of fresh items such as fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, and fish. Recent investors in the company’s seed round included Frst, Daphni, Motier Ventures, and Kima Ventures. They contributed a total of $2.9 million (€2.7 million).

Currently, most grocery businesses rely on order sheets, which typically contain a significant number of columns that describe the reordering schedule. These tables are prone to inaccuracy, resulting in wasted food or a lack thereof. Either supermarkets are incurring losses or passing up opportunities to increase their earnings.

These pieces of paper and this pen will be handed over to the individual in charge of the veggies. After that, they will review the stock one line at a time, looking at each reference. Next, people will speculate and say, “Ok, at the moment, I have a favorable impression of eggplants.” Mateo Beacco, who helped start the company and is its CEO, told me, “The weather is pretty nice today, so let’s go for four crates of two kilograms of eggplants.”

It is not entirely a matter of guessing, as knowledgeable individuals will examine data from previous years to identify specific patterns that can help them determine whether or not it is the right time to place an order for additional strawberries. In contrast, there has been a higher rate of employee turnover in these positions in recent years. Even for workers who have worked at the same grocery store for a year, maintaining accuracy daily can be challenging.

Ida aims to revolutionize this process by providing grocers with the appropriate tools to serve their customers better. Ida is tablet software connected to a sales forecasting algorithm that helps humans determine when it is the right moment to replenish some fresh items.

Ida is beginning with produce like vegetables and fruits, but it is possible that it could soon spread into other categories like meat and fish. Ida is attacking an underserved section of the supermarket inventory by concentrating on perishable commodities. This is possible since bar codes and related points of sale make it reasonably straightforward to estimate the number of cereal boxes currently in stock in a particular establishment. Beacco put it another way when he said, “SAP gives you a rolling average.”

Ida does not focus on what occurs at the retail points of sale since such an approach is ineffective when dealing with food items like vegetables and fruits. Instead, the business creates a probabilistic inventory that considers the circumstances that may arise in the actual world.

When you buy organic cucumbers, the cashier will count them as non-organic cucumbers. “With a probabilistic inventory, my cucumber sales are mixed with my organic cucumber sales because when you buy organic cucumbers, the cashier will count them as non-organic cucumbers,” Beacco stated. As a further illustration, potatoes may likely be stored for a considerable amount of time, but cherries soon become spoiled.

Ida will be able to provide you with a rough estimate of the amount of cucumbers you have in stock in this manner, which eliminates the need for you to count the quantity of cucumbers you now own. Staff workers can adjust such inventory statistics if something seems significantly wrong.

Second, to provide an accurate demand prediction, Ida considers well over a hundred distinct criteria in addition to at least three years of sales data. Ida considers several factors before making her decision, including the temperature, the season, the cost, the availability of comparable goods at other grocery stores in the region, and more.

Third, Ida will utilize this forecasting data to create your subsequent orders. Retailers may set up a safety stock to ensure that they won’t run out of a particular item (without overstocking) by providing that they won’t run out of it in the first place.

“As I said before, you place your orders for eggplant in crates of two kilograms each. Now, we are confronted with a mathematical challenge that involves optimization while being constrained. Beacco stated, “I order in increments of 2 kg, and my shelf has a capacity of 5 kg; however, we are going to try to take into account all of the data to determine that we need four crates and not 3 nor 5.”

Ida does not independently process customer orders. Instead, team members may review everything and personally make adjustments as necessary. At this point, the company estimates that between 70 and 75 percent of Ida’s recommendations are accurate and are not subject to manual adjustment by grocers. Ida will generate purchase forms once this process has been completed. These order forms will be sent to the central buying office. Still, they may also be sent to local manufacturers because Ida’s tablet software allows users to mix and match different providers.

Ida is only scratching the surface in many respects at this point. Other emerging firms, such as Guac, in the United States are also targeting this industry. Observing whether supermarkets start using these software solutions to handle fresh items on a larger scale will be fascinating. However, it would appear to be common sense for supermarkets to enhance their bottom lines and lessen their total impact on the environment.

November 16, 2023 0 comment

BUSINESS

Group of Black Farmers Secure $1.25M in Funding to Acquire Land in California

by Ava Robinson November 16, 2023

written by Ava Robinson

Ujamaa Farmer Collective has recently successfully secured 1.25 million dollars in assistance from the state of California to assist black farmers in acquiring the land they require to expand their enterprises. Providing this cash is essential in redressing the historical inequalities in land ownership that black farmers have experienced.

Nelson Hawkins, Nathaniel Brown, and Keith Hudson are black farmers who founded the non-profit organization Ujamaa Farmer Collective to assert cooperative land ownership and support historically underserved farmers.
People of color who are farmers now own less than 2% of all farmland in the United States. Even yet, a farm in West Sacramento known as We Grow Farms, which provides inhabitants of the surrounding area with much-required vegetables, is now contending with the possibility that their leased land would be used to construct homes.

The Ujamaa Farmer Collective intends to use the $1.25 million in money allotted to them by the California legislative body in 2022 to purchase property in Yolo County, California, to solve the problem. The land will be subdivided into smaller parcels ranging from one half-acre to five total acres each. This enables several farms to function independently while simultaneously pooling their resources.

Ujamaa, which translates to “extended family” in Swahili, is an economic model that emphasizes cooperation and welcomes all participants. Hawkins said in an interview with Because of Them, We May that their objective is to “elevate everybody’s potential so [we] can all thrive.”

Ujamaa’s leadership comprises black farmers who have been disadvantaged in their ability to acquire land ownership throughout history. This sets it apart from other agricultural cooperatives. This effort seeks to re-distribute opportunities to African-American farmers, highlight the voices of African-American farmers, and establish a more resilient community.

November 16, 2023 0 comment

BUSINESS

Black Woman President of DC-Based Marketing Agency to Lead Social Impact Practice Using AI Solutions

by Ava Robinson November 14, 2023

written by Ava Robinson

Marketing firm Boathouse Group has established a new social impact practice. Karen Baker, president of Boathouse DC, will serve as the business’s leader. In addition, advertising, communications, digital acquisition, and organic social media services are included in the company’s offerings.

A black woman president of a marketing firm based in Washington, DC, will oversee the social impact practice using AI tools.
Clients can create and implement strategic marketing approaches that align their organizations’ values with key stakeholders’ attitudes as a result of the new offer.

The president of Boathouse DC, Karen Baker, has announced the creation of a new social impact practice at Boathouse Group, a marketing firm with national operations. In addition, advertising, communications, digital acquisition, and organic social media services are included in the company’s offerings.

“We see this offer as a critical component of our overall portfolio as client organizations of all sizes seek to ensure that they are reflecting the values of their stakeholder bases in an era when social good is a critical yardstick,” said John Connors, the founder, and CEO of Boathouse. “We see this offer as a critical component of our overall portfolio as client organizations of all sizes seek to ensure that they reflect the values of their stakeholder bases.”

Baker continued, saying, “Efforts must be made both online and offline to have a measurable effect on society.” We are aware of the appropriate delivery. Whether the focus is on diversity and inclusion, particular social challenges, specific social issues, corporate social obligations, charity, employee trust, or all of these, our goal is to be purpose-driven in our story and how we define and identify the effect.

The firm has said that one of its goals is to “inspire the scale of social good.” One way it plans to do this is by utilizing synergy across various programs and campaigns.

Boathouse stated that it would employ AI solutions to comprehend the social landscape of social issues inside a client’s business and internationally. The company also indicated that it would use the insights acquired as part of a more comprehensive marketing and communications plan.

The organization’s main office is located in Boston and has locations in Silicon Valley and Washington, DC.

November 14, 2023 0 comment

Entrepreneurial Mindset Inspiring Stories

10-Year-Old Black Girl Breaks World Record, Writes Longest Novel With 58,000 Words

by Ava Robinson November 14, 2023

written by Ava Robinson

Meet Hephzibah Akinwale, a little black girl from the United Kingdom who, at the age of ten, has recently broken the world record for the length of a children’s fiction novel written entirely in the first person. The staggering number of 58,000 words may be found in her book, which is titled Chronicles of the Time Keepers: Whisked Away.

According to Shine My Crown, the main character of this middle-grade fiction adventure tale is a little girl named Hephzibah. In this book, Hephzibah is immersed in intriguing dreams that feel as real as her existence.

Manikya Sanghi, who was 11 years old at the time and wrote the prize-winning novel Wizard of Sansanadia, held the record before Hephzibah, a student at Little Thetford C of E Primary School in East Cambridgeshire, England, broke it with 44,000 words. Hephzibah’s novel had 46,000 words.

Nevertheless, Hephzibah is doing more than just shattering records. Her mother, Chika, has a strong belief that other children all across the world will be inspired to be creative as a result of her accomplishments.

In addition, the East Cambridgeshire District Council recognized her as one of the best 20 young people in the area to assist in celebrating King Charles III’s coronation. Her abilities have gained her this recognition.

November 14, 2023 0 comment

STARTUPS

Shekel Mobility, a B2B marketplace for auto dealers in Africa, raises $7M led by Ventures Platform and MaC VC.

by Alex Turner November 14, 2023

written by Alex Turner

According to the World Economic Forum, the yearly demand for automobiles in Africa is around 2.4 million, while the demand for commercial vehicles is approximately 300,000.

This demand is growing due to a rise throughout the continent in the amount of discretionary money available, a robust expansion of the middle class, and rising urbanization. Even though most vehicles satisfying this demand are pre-owned, the rate of automobile ownership in Africa is significantly lower than the worldwide average of 203 cars per 1,000 people.

In the past, we have covered new businesses in the automobile sector, shining a spotlight on essential players such as Autochek and Moove. Both companies address ownership by catering to customers and drivers, respectively. However, financing a car extends beyond the purview of customers and drivers; there is a significant possibility of offering services suited for dealerships. Small auto dealers rely heavily on vehicle finance since it facilitates their day-to-day business activities and helps them maintain lower operating expenses.

When interest rates on loans and credit cards are reasonable, consumers gain, which leads to an increase in the number of automobiles on the roads in Africa. This underscores the necessity for vehicle dealers to have access to inexpensive finance and business solutions.

In this strategic market, Shekel Mobility is a company that receives support from YC. The B2B auto dealer marketplace has raised over $7 million in investment, with over $4 million raised in loans and $3.2 million raised in equity. In an interview with TechCrunch, the company’s co-founder, Benjamen Oladokun, stated that the money would be necessary to quadruple the company’s current ARR, which is a little over $2 million, and that the company will leverage this momentum as it prepares for its next pricing round. The startup company announced in January of this year that it had received a pre-seed investment of $1.95 million, with participation from Y Combinator, Voltron Capital, and Zedcrest.

These investors participated in the subsequent seed round for Shekel Mobility. This time around, MaC Venture Capital and Ventures Platform took equal leadership roles in the seed round.

Y Combinator, Rebel Fund, Unpopular Ventures, Maiora Capital, PageOne Lab Inc., Phoenix Investment Club, Heirloom VC, Pioneer Ventures, and other angel investors are also among the company’s investors. During this time, Zedvance, VFD Microfinance Bank, Zenith Bank, and Fluna, amongst others, provided the debt component. According to Shekel Mobility, several financial institutions have leveraged the startup’s platform to fund automobile dealerships.

Together with Sanmi Olukanmi, Oladokun established Shekel Mobility. Shekel Mobility was founded on their combined expertise in the automotive business, which included the founding and subsequent sale of Eazypapers Technologies. Eazypapers Technologies was a digital vehicle documentation platform that catered to the FMCG, mobility, and logistics industries.

This so-called mobility fintech assists auto sellers in the African used car industry, estimated to be worth $30 billion, in finding, financing, and selling vehicles. Shekel Mobility seeks to establish itself as the leading platform to create and expand a vehicle dealership, locally or digitally, by 2025. More specifically, the company hopes to build the most significant auto dealership ecosystem possible, with yearly transactions totaling $10 billion by that year. Today, the auto dealer marketplace has been responsible for over $56 million in transactions. This has helped over 1,400 auto dealers expand their businesses by increasing the number of automobiles in their inventory and their sales across 7,000 vehicles.

Shekel Credit, the company’s main product, is the driving force behind the company’s expansion. This product gives car dealers instant access to finance, with credit limits that may go as high as $200,000 for purchasing a vehicle but more commonly range from $5,000 to $20,000. Shekel Credit is the company’s namesake. The financing system calls for the dealer to contribute thirty percent of the overall cost, which would equate to three thousand dollars in the example of a ten thousand dollar automobile purchase. Shekel lends the remaining 70 percent to the dealer as a loan. Subsequently, upon the sale of the vehicle to the end customer, which typically occurs within three months, the auto dealer sends money to Shekel to cover the interest on the loan and the transaction costs involved with the sale of the automobile.

Oladokun mentioned on the call that Shekel Mobility’s approach, which controls the whole process of purchasing and selling automobiles through dealerships, assures that it will record a 0% default rate. This model involves Shekel Mobility controlling the entire process. In a statement, Olukanmi further underlined that although there is a significant gap in directly giving financing to car dealers, Shekel Mobility only funds auto retailers that it “believes will have a lasting positive impact on consumers.”

Shekel Mobility is planning to expand its product offerings, one of which will be called Shekel Business. The company’s credit product has driven its success over the previous 20 months, and this expansion will build on that success. According to the company’s creators, this application will attempt to automate the informal trade activities inside the auto dealership sector. The suite of tools is intended to assist dealers not just in financing their inventory but also in expediting sales and structuring operations. This is in addition to helping dealers in the traditional sense of funding their stocks. “One of the fundamental things we’ve built is the ability to buy a car without collateral,” said Oladokun. “We got our start by making loans to dealers, but now we’re looking to cut the cost of owning car dealerships by providing additional digital tools and physical infrastructure.”

Kola Aina, founding partner at Ventures Platform, pointed out that Shekel is developing a significant market-creating invention that is key to increasing Nigeria’s automotive sector and will soon be essential to extending Africa’s automotive industry. Shekel Mobility can alter and spark the automotive sector in Africa, according to Marlon Nichols, founder and managing partner at MaC Venture Capital, who was commenting on the round. Shekel Mobility funds and empowers small enterprises that require funding to survive; thus, Nichols believes it can do both things. According to what he mentioned, “the team is enabling millions of dollars to move through the economy of Nigeria while at the same time providing locals with affordable automobiles.”

November 14, 2023 0 comment

Startup Successes STARTUPS

Giskard’s open-source framework evaluates AI models before they’re pushed into production.

by Alex Turner November 14, 2023

written by Alex Turner

The French firm Giskard is developing an open-source testing framework for huge language models. The company is based in Paris. It can warn developers about potential biases, security flaws, and the possibility of a model creating harmful or poisonous information.

Even though there is a lot of excitement around AI models, machine learning testing systems are soon becoming an essential topic of discussion. This is because regulation is set to be implemented in the EU with the AI Act and in other nations. To avoid paying substantial fines, businesses that build AI models must provide evidence that they comply with laws and take measures to limit risks.

Giskard is an artificial intelligence (AI) firm that supports regulation. It is also one of the first instances of a developer tool that focuses primarily on testing in a more time-efficient way.

“Before, I was employed at Dataiku, where I mostly worked on NLP model integration. “When I was in charge of testing, I noticed that there were both things that didn’t work well when you wanted to apply them to practical cases, and it was tough to compare the performance of suppliers to one another,” Giskard co-founder and CEO Alex Combessie told me. “And I could see that when I was in charge of testing, there were both things that didn’t work well when you wanted to apply them to practical cases.”

Giskard’s testing framework is made up of three different parts, all working together. The organization has disseminated an open-source Python library suitable for incorporation into an LLM project and, more significantly, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) initiatives. Already fairly popular on GitHub, it is also interoperable with various tools within machine learning ecosystems, like Hugging Face, MLFlow, Weights & Biases, PyTorch, Tensorflow, and Langchain.

Once the first configuration is complete, Giskard will assist you in generating a test suite that will be routinely applied to your model. These examinations cover various topics, including performance, hallucinations, false information, output not based on facts, biases, data leakage, hazardous content development, and quick injections.

“And there are several facets: you’ll have the performance facet, which will be the first thing on the mind of a data scientist. Combessie remarked, “But more and more, you have the ethical aspect to consider, both from a brand image point of view and now from a regulatory point of view.”

The developers may incorporate the tests into the continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipeline. This will ensure the tests are executed each time a new codebase iteration is created. For example, developers will receive a scan report on their GitHub repository if something is incorrect.

The tests are tailored to the model’s final use case to ensure accuracy. Companies working on RAG can access vector databases and knowledge repositories to make it as relevant as is humanly practical. For instance, if you are developing a chatbot that can provide you with information on climate change based on the most recent report from the IPCC and utilizing an LLM from OpenAI, Giskard tests will verify whether the model may produce disinformation about climate change, contradict itself, and address other similar issues.

Giskard’s second offering is an artificial intelligence quality center that assists with debugging and comparing big language models to other models. The premium package that Giskard offers includes this high-caliber hub. The young company has high aspirations that it will one day be able to produce paperwork demonstrating that a model is operating according to the applicable regulations.

“We are beginning to sell the AI Quality Hub to businesses such as the Banque de France and L’Oréal to assist these organizations in debugging and locating the sources of problems. Combessie stated that this will be the location of all of the regulatory features in the not-too-distant future.

The third product that the corporation offers is known as LLMon. Before the response is transmitted back to the user, this real-time monitoring tool may assess LLM replies for the most typical concerns (toxicity, hallucinations, fact-checking, etc.).

It now collaborates with businesses that have chosen OpenAI’s APIs and LLMs as the core paradigm for their operations; however, the firm is working on integrations with Hugging Face, Anthropic, and other similar organizations.

There are some different approaches to regulating AI models. Based on talks with people working within the AI ecosystem, it is currently unclear whether the AI Act will apply to fundamental models developed by OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and others or apply to applied use cases.

In the second case, Giskard seems to be in an excellent position to tell developers about the wrong ways to use LLMs that have been improved with outside data, which AI researchers call retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

Giskard is now employing a total of 20 individuals in its operation. “We see an obvious market fit with customers on LLMs, so we’re going to roughly double the team size to be the best LLM antivirus on the market,” Combessie said. “We see an obvious market fit with customers on LLMs.”

November 14, 2023 0 comment

PHOTO: Dr. Uzo Ihenko and Kelechi Chillis-Ihenko

Entrepreneurial Mindset YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

Father and Son Make History, Open First Black-Owned UPS Store in Buffalo, New York

by Ava Robinson November 13, 2023

written by Ava Robinson

Meet Dr. Uzo Ihenko and Kelechi Chillis-Ihenko, a father-son team who have created history by building the first black-owned UPS store in Western New York in Buffalo. The business is located in the state of New York. The two individuals who had a solid commitment to serving their local community were the ones who brought a valuable resource to the region.

Kelechi witnessed the absence of necessary services in his neighborhood when he was growing up in Buffalo, and now he is happy to be able to fulfill that need. After completing his Master of Business Administration degree, he and his father co-founded a shipping and delivery business in Buffalo. Dr. Uzo, his father, thinks that the success of their family company is blazing a trail for other people.
“People are seeing the future in their lives, and other businesses will copy, and then other jobs will come,” Dr. Uzo explained to WKBW.

This UPS facility provides fingerprinting, shipping, delivery, and printing services. This makes it an ideal choice for customers who want background checks because it saves them time.

Even more services are available at this UPS location. Dr. Uzo adds that they intend to convert the rear portion of the building into reasonably priced apartments and office space, which will provide the neighborhood with more opportunities to develop and prosper. They credit their success to adopting a strategy that prioritizes the needs of the individuals they serve.

“If you’re not people first, the people aren’t going to support you,” according to Kelechi. “So you want to have anything you do be people-focused, so that will help you be successful in business.”

In addition to this, they are dedicated to remaining in Buffalo for the next generation, serving as a link between the local community and local companies. Dr. Uzo stated, “I informed them that we are not going anywhere. We are a part of you, and we are present in this place. Therefore, keep in mind that it is not only for them. It is also for persons living in the downtown area.”

November 13, 2023 0 comment

Newer Posts

Older Posts