TL;DR:
- Toronto-based Shakudo secures $9.5 million CAD in Series A funding to help companies swiftly launch AI products.
- Shakudo’s platform enables firms to leverage new data and AI tools without vendor lock-in.
- The funding will drive Shakudo’s expansion into enterprise generative AI, meeting strong demand from customers.
- GreatPoint Ventures leads the funding round, with support from RTP Global, Golden Ventures, and Parade Ventures.
- Shakudo’s all-in-one software platform simplifies AI adoption and empowers data science and ML teams.
- Shakudo automates engineering tasks, allowing engineers to focus on product development.
- The company’s impressive growth, customer retention, and lean team contribute to its fundraising success.
Main AI News:
Toronto-based Shakudo has successfully raised $9.5 million CAD ($7.2 million USD) in Series A funding, empowering companies to swiftly and cost-effectively launch artificial intelligence (AI) products. In a time when AI investment and deployment are in high demand, Shakudo aims to assist businesses in leveraging the abundance of new data and AI tools available to them, all while avoiding vendor lock-in.
Shakudo’s co-founder and CEO, Yevgeniy Vahlis, emphasized the startup’s intention to capitalize on the market’s ripe opportunity. With the latest funding, Shakudo plans to make substantial strides in enterprise generative AI, an area experiencing strong demand from both current and prospective customers.
Founded in 2021 by AI experts from Georgian Partners, Borealis AI, and BMO, Shakudo streamlines AI adoption for companies through its comprehensive software platform. By offering end-to-end solutions, Shakudo empowers enterprise data science and machine learning (ML) teams to seamlessly design, develop, test, and deploy AI products.
Vahlis outlined Shakudo’s unique approach, distinguishing it from other market entrants. Unlike many competitors who focus on building foundational models, Shakudo’s objective is to simplify the initial utilization of AI technologies for companies. By doing so, the company aims to enable organizations to swiftly embrace the benefits of these cutting-edge tools.
GreatPoint Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, led Shakudo’s all-equity Series A round, with additional support from England’s RTP Global as a new investor. Toronto-based Golden Ventures and California’s Parade Ventures, who co-led Shakudo’s $4.2 million seed round in 2021, also participated in this round. The Series A funding round, closed in April, brings Shakudo’s total funding to approximately $14.5 million. Vahlis did not disclose the latest valuation but emphasized a substantial increase relative to the seed financing.
DJ Patil, General Partner at GreatPoint Ventures, highlighted the prevailing challenges hindering effective AI implementation today, ranging from complex data infrastructure requirements to compatibility issues with the latest tools and scarcity of talent. Patil affirmed Shakudo’s pivotal role in addressing these obstacles, as its unified platform offers a seamless solution for building and managing enterprise-grade data stacks.
Patil, an esteemed data scientist and former member of LinkedIn’s senior leadership team, expressed his confidence in Shakudo’s long-term success by joining the company’s board. He acknowledged Shakudo’s ability to deliver exceptional results and thrive even in adverse conditions, which played a significant role in GreatPoint Ventures’ decision to invest and lead the latest funding round.
Shakudo has already enabled several prominent companies, including Quantum Metric, QuadReal, RiskThinking, Ritual, EnPowered, and ZeroEyes, to launch an array of diverse products. By utilizing Shakudo’s platform, clients have successfully deployed large language models (LLMs), summarized analyst research, structured unstructured text, detected weapons in security camera feeds, classified waste using computer vision, generated digital twins of physical assets, and forecasted energy usage.
Positioning itself as “the operating system for data stacks,” Shakudo prides itself on automating common engineering and development tasks, thereby liberating client engineers to concentrate on product development. Given the current economic climate and the need for companies to optimize their resources, Vahlis believes Shakudo’s value proposition holds even greater appeal.
Vahlis stated, “Taking away the mundane maintenance and operational aspects of the data stack is even more valuable to them than ever before.” In a challenging fundraising environment, Shakudo’s lean team of 12 individuals, impressive revenue growth, and high customer retention set the company apart. Vahlis noted that Shakudo achieved a six-fold increase in revenue year-over-year in 2022, despite not having a dedicated sales team.
Jamie Rosenblatt, Partner at Golden Ventures, expressed his confidence in Shakudo’s success, emphasizing the company’s timely product, exceptional team, and proven track record. Rosenblatt highlighted the intense enterprise interest in AI adoption, particularly following OpenAI’s breakthroughs, as companies strive to integrate large language models into their technology stacks. He regarded this surge in interest as a massive opportunity for Shakudo to acquire new customers.
Conclusion:
Shakudo’s successful Series A funding round and expansion into enterprise generative AI highlight the growing demand for AI adoption in the market. With its all-in-one platform and emphasis on simplifying AI implementation, Shakudo positions itself as a valuable solution for businesses seeking to leverage the benefits of AI without vendor lock-in. The funding and market interest demonstrates the industry’s recognition of the need for streamlined AI adoption tools, paving the way for Shakudo’s continued success in driving businesses toward advanced AI capabilities.
