Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a large number of startups twice a year. It created a new model for funding startups. Twice a year, the company invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups. The startup accelerator works intensively with the companies for three months, to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors. Each cycle culminates in Demo Day when the startups present their companies to a carefully selected, invite-only audience.

Y Combinator

First Spark Ventures is a deep tech venture capital firm that invests in scientists globally. They specialize in advanced computing, digital biology and biotech, and cyber-physical systems.

First Spark Ventures

Betaworks Ventures is a product-focused, seed-stage venture capital fund, having invested in more than 150 companies. We invest in new consumer behaviors and trends powered by frontier technologies, and are often amongst the first institutional investors to invest.

Betaworks

Pioneer Fund is a fund of 420+ Y Combinator alumni, investing in the top Y Combinator startups.

Pioneer Fund

Factorial Capital

Felicis Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. The firm invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors and industries reinventing core markets, as well as those creating frontier technologies. Felicis currently manages over $2B in capital across 8 funds. The firm is an early backer of more than 40 companies valued at $1B+. More than 90 of its portfolio companies have been acquired or gone public since the firm was founded by Aydin Senkut in 2006.

Felicis

Mozilla Ventures seeks to invest in early-stage startups focusing on technology sector.

Mozilla Ventures

Flower Labs

Flower is an open-source framework for training AI on distributed data using federated learning. Companies like Banking Circle, Nokia, Porsche, and Brave use Flower to easily improve their AI models on sensitive data that is distributed across organizational silos or user devices. Almost all AI today is based on centralized public data — a small fraction of the data we have; we believe that training on orders of magnitude more data will unlock the next leaps in AI.

Flower Labs is a startup that has developed an open-source framework for federated learning, a method that enables AI model training without centralizing data. The company's technology allows AI models to be trained "at the edge," utilizing distributed computing resources such as smartphones, laptops, and other devices rather than relying solely on centralized data centers with expensive GPUs.

Empowering Tomorrow's Innovations with Generative AI Infrastructure

Generative AI Infrastructure

Flower Labs on LinkedIn: At FS24, we introduced FlowerLLM-1.3B: The world's 1st 1.3B…

Flower Labs is a startup that has developed an open-source framework for federated learning, a method that enables AI model training without centralizing data. The company's technology allows AI models to be trained "at the edge," utilizing distributed computing resources such as smartphones, laptops, and other devices rather than relying solely on centralized data centers with expensive GPUs.The Flower framework facilitates privacy-preserving AI training by keeping data in its original location and only sharing model updates, making it particularly valuable for industries like healthcare and financial services where data privacy is crucial. The company's approach aims to unlock vast amounts of private and distributed data for AI training that would otherwise be inaccessible due to privacy concerns or regulations.The company’s framework can be used in combination with many popular machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, Hugging Face, and PyTorch.Key customers and partnershipsAs of February 2024, over 3,000 developers were using Flower for more than 1,100 AI projects across various organizations, including major universities, corporations, and government agencies.Flower Labs’s customer base includes notable firms such as Samsung, Brave, University of Oxford, Harvard, and Accenture.&nbsp;&nbsp;In March 2024, Flower Labs partnered with NVIDIA to establish compatibility between the two frameworks.

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 Founded in Israel, NeuReality specializes in providing hardware infrastructure to streamline computation processes to accelerate the development of AI applications. Its technology assists AI inferencing deployment by offering a comprehensive system solution that seamlessly supports a vast array of deep learning models.
 
 
 NeuRealitys&rsquo; infrastructure includes an architecture called the Network Addressable Processing Unit (NAPU) to maximize the capabilities of Deep Learning Accelerators (DLAs). This design facilitates inference through purpose-built NAPUs that are specifically crafted for AI inference tasks, enhancing performance and efficiency.
 
 
 The NR1 AI Inference Solution by NeuReality is a comprehensive system comprising architecture, hardware, and software platforms. Launched in November 2023, it intends to simplify the installation, utilization, and management of AI, making it accessible and manageable for users.
 
 
 The hardware offerings of the solution include,
 
 
 1. 
 NR1 Network Addressable Processing Unit
 : A network addressable inference Server-on-a-Chip with an embedded Neural Network Engine, which is a workflow-optimized hardware device with specialized processing units, native network capabilities, and virtualization capabilities
 
 
 2. 
 NR1-M&trade; AI Inference Module
 : A full-height, double-wide PCIe card containing one NR1 Network Addressable Processing Unit (NAPU) system-on-chip and a network addressable Inference Server that can connect to an external Deep Learning Accelerator (DLA)
 
 
 3. 
 NR1-S AI Inference Appliance
 : An optimized design for an inference server that contains NR1-M modules with the NR1 NAPU, which enables disaggregated AI service in a scalable and efficient architecture
 
 
 The software component of the solution is designed to be compatible with any trained model from any development environment. It includes tools that handle the entire AI pipeline and enable seamless connection of AI workflows to any environment.
 
 
 NeuReality differs from traditional AI chip connectivity in replacing CPU-centric support with an AI-centric platform. This allows components to communicate directly with AI accelerators, eliminating the need for commands to pass through a central processing unit. Additionally, the technology enables AI accelerators to connect with each other, enhancing efficiency and performance in AI applications. It also claims its AI-centric approach reduces complexity, cost, and power usage. The firm claims it can reduce inference costs by 90%.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In November 2021, NeuReality teamed up with IBM to develop advanced AI inference technology by enhancing its NR1 chip and system for use in IBM's Hybrid Cloud.
 
 
 In September 2021, the company partnered with Xilinx to develop AI-centric platforms that improve real-world AI applications. This collaboration was intended to focus on NeuReality's AI-centric inference platform NR1-P and address existing issues with AI deployment including cost and complexity.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27745">
 March 2024
 </a>
 , NeuReality secured USD 20 million in funding led by The European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund. The funds were intended to accelerate the deployment of NeuReality&rsquo;s NR1AI Inference Solution.
 
 
 In December 2022, it secured USD 35 million in a Series A funding round led by Samsung Ventures, with Cardumen Capital, Varana Capital, OurCrowd, XT Hi-Tech, and others as participants. The funding was used to launch its flagship AI inferencing solution.
 
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NeuReality

<div>
 
 Accubits is an AI and BLOCKCHAIN focused development and solutions company based in Washington DC with its development offices in India and Dubai. Pioneering as a custom Blockchain solutions provider delivering solutions ever since 2012, Accubits is one of the oldest and experienced Blockchain dev house in the market and is featured as one among the top 13 Blockchain companies in India by INC42. We are a big family of engineers, innovators, inventors and many others continually working to help our customers in leveraging their business and adding value to their lives. Over the past 6 years, We have delivered more than 600 projects, for over 200 clients worldwide. Several of Fortune 500 companies in sectors from Retail to Health are being powered by our solutions to streamline and leverage their growth.Our portfolio for AI solutions includes intelligent conversational tools, RPAs, CRMs, SIPs, real-time video and image analytics systems, state of the art ALPR systems and many more being used enterprises, startups across North America, Canada, Middle East, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, India &amp; Sweden. Our portfolio of Blockchain development includes custom DApps and smart contracts, crypto token and exchange development, integrated blockchain services and ICO platforms.
 
</div>

Accubits

<div>
 
 LeewayHertz is a leading software development company delivering tailor-made digital solutions to businesses worldwide. Our team of 250+ full-stack developers, designers and innovators has designed and developed 100+ digital solutions across industry verticals. As a close-knit team of AI and web3 experts, designers and full-stack developers, we undertake collaborative research and development to create next-gen applications and solutions perfectly suited to the evolving tech space. As a technology pioneer with deep knowledge and expertise in AI, blockchain and other advanced technologies like IoT, LeewayHertz believes in helping companies overcome their most complex tech challenges and drive business growth. Our motto, &lsquo;You Dream It: We Build It,&rsquo; reflects our business philosophy. From putting flesh on your idea to delivering the expected end product, we do whatever it takes to make your project successful. Having worked with 30+ top fortune 500 companies and created various on-demand solutions, we boast an impressive work portfolio demonstrating our expertise.
 
</div>

LeewayHertz

Databricks, a data and AI company established by the original developers behind prominent Big Data solutions such as Delta Lake, Apache Spark, and MLflow, and provides organizations with AI and data analytics tools for efficient management of their data.Databricks' primary product is the Databricks Lakehouse platform, a unified data intelligence platform that merges a data warehouse and data lake to provide developers with efficient access to data and enables enterprise customers to create their AI models—similar to a ChatGPT-style AI system—using only their internal data.Databricks Unity Catalog, part of the Databricks Lakehouse Platform, provides unified governance for structured and unstructured data, machine-learning models, notebooks, dashboards, and files across various environments, offering automated monitoring, proactive alerts, and seamless data sharing through Delta Sharing integration. Furthermore, Databricks offers an open architecture that streamlines the AI development process, allowing the integration of various LLMs such as Llama 2, Azure OpenAI, and Anthropic, enabling customization with enterprise data for tailored model creation.Notably, Lakehouse leverages NVIDIA technology for accelerated data processing and AI model generation. Databricks also offers industry-specific solutions like Databricks Lakehouse for Healthcare, Financial Services, Retail, and Manufacturing.Databricks has expanded its offerings through multiple acquisitions, including MosaicML ( <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19683">July 2023 </a>), Arcion ( <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/23041">October 2023 </a>), Okera ( <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18197">May 2023 </a>), and Datajoy (October 2022). Key customers and partnershipsAs of July 2023, Databricks served a global customer base of approximately 10,000, including notable customers such as Comcast, DuPont, Honeywell, Rolls-Royce, Shell, and Tata Steel.Notable partnerships include collaboration with NVIDIA to incorporate NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM into its inference service and a partnership with Hevo-Data to automate data integration into the lakehouse for mutual customers (October 2022).Databricks also partnered with Karini AI to accelerate GenAI deployment for enterprises (<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/33687">September 2024</a>)Databricks also provides an LLM Mesh partner program; it has partnered with firms such as <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24218">Dataiku </a>where an emphasis is placed on comprehensive data access, enabling tight integration of GenAI applications with enterprise data.

Databricks

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 Labelbox offers a data-centric AI platform for enterprises, enabling them to develop, optimize, and use AI to solve complex problems and power new products and services.&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
 
 Labelbox&rsquo;s platform offers capabilities for building, optimizing, training, fine-tuning LLMs, and AI-enabled data labeling automation.&nbsp;
 
 
 Its products include&nbsp;
 
 
 1) Catalog: A platform for building AI applications with features such as advanced search capabilities and optimizing data for labeling budgets
 
 
 2) Annotate: A data labeling solution designed to streamline and accelerate labeling operations using automation tools and pre-labeling techniques
 
 
 (3) Model: Offers tools for data enrichment, model-assisted labeling, and custom Foundry Apps to automate data management tasks and improve AI model performance&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
 
 (4) Boost: Offers fully managed tailored solutions such as on-demand data labeling services to enhance AI development speed and efficiency.&nbsp;
 
 
 As such, Labelbox enables companies to streamline the fine-tuning and alignment of LLMs and enables the validation of outputs through techniques such as reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF), reinforcement learning from AI feedback (RELIEF), and evaluation. This incorporation of human expertise ensures more accurate, contextually relevant, trustworthy, and secure results from LLM systems.
 
 
 The platform is offered through a SaaS subscription model with packages ranging from free subscriptions with limited usage and custom pricing for enterprises.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 The firm's solutions have use cases across diverse industries, including retail, consumer internet, healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services. Labelbox has a large portfolio of customers, including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Blue River Technology, a smart AgriTech company that used Labelbox's model-assisted labeling suite to enhance its See &amp; Spray technology in smart agriculture, resulting in herbicide cost savings of 70%&ndash;80. Labelbox's customers also include several Fortune 500 companies, such as Walmart, P&amp;G, Audi Adobe, Airbnb, Bayer, and Bosch.
 
 
 Key partnerships include a long-term collaboration with 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21770">
 Google Cloud
 </a>
 to facilitate digital transformations in retail, consumer internet, financial services, and manufacturing and logistics.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In January 2022, the firm raised USD 110 million in Series D funding led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2. The company planned to utilize the funds to finance company expansion.
 
 
 
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Labelbox

Integrated solutions that handle various processes such as model training, fine-tuning, model deployment, monitoring, and maintenance in working with and deploying LLMs

Platforms that provide hardware such as high-performance CPUs, GPUs, or TPUs, including cloud-based solutions that are commonly used to train and run GenAI models efficiently

Platforms that assist with fine-tuning pre-trained GenAI models or custom models tailored to specific use cases. Includes services that train models from scratch or use existing models

Platforms that store and retrieve training data in vector databases for access during the model training phase

Services to deploy GenAI models (on-premises or cloud-based) into production environments and integration tools to support existing systems and workflows

Ongoing monitoring of GenAI models to ensure performance. Includes regular model retraining, performance optimization, and troubleshooting

Platforms that assist in designing and refining prompts or instructions to GenAI models to get the desired responses or outcomes

Platforms that enable safe, responsible, and ethical GenAI deployment, ensuring compliance with regulations and/or protection against GenAI-based cybersecurity threats.

All services offered by these companies provide support to AI/ML

NLP is a key component of generative AI which is the core focus of this hub.

All companies within this space are offering infrastructure for generative AI

Generative AI infrastructure hub covers companies that deploy and run these foundation models.

<div>
 
 Flower Labs, an open-source AI training framework provider, has secured USD 20 million in a Series A funding round. The round saw participation from Felicis, First Spark Ventures, Factorial Capital, Beta Works, and other investors.
 The funds will be utilized by Flower in creating a platform to improve federated AI solutions in collaboration with their open-source framework. The company also anticipates that the funding will facilitate the rapid deployment of their recently developed FedGPT technology for wider applications.
 Technology offered by Flower Labs simplifies the adoption of federated learning for AI training. It eliminates the necessity to consolidate all training data on one central server. Well-known companies like Samsung, Nokia Bell Labs, Brave, and Banking Circle rely on Flower for their federated learning and decentralized AI needs.
 
</div>

Flower Labs

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