Canada-based artificial intelligence developer Element AI formed a $45m investment fund on Wednesday with South Korea-based telecommunications firm SK Telecom, automotive manufacturer Hyundai Motor Company and diversified conglomerate Hanwha.
The as-yet unnamed fund will target companies developing AI technology for commercial applications and infrastructure, in areas such as hardware, autonomous vehicles, domestic robotics, manufacturing and unmanned aerial vehicles.
The $45m is set to be deployed in the next three years. The Korean corporates will manage the fund while Element AI, which raised $102m in a Hanwha-backed series A round in June this year, will participate in an advisory capacity.
Jean-François Gagné, Element AI’s CEO, said: “Our position in the marketplace gives us extraordinary access to the most cutting-edge technologies being developed today – all we need are partners and capital commitment to seed the future and that is what we are achieving today with this announcement.
“SK Telecom, Hyundai, and Hanwha share our passion for investment and building the future; I am excited we can now work together to create a new global, industrial reality that will serve our local communities well.”
Hyundai’s participation represents part of its open innovation strategy, it said, while SK Telecom is looking to establish what it calls the new ICT (information and communications technology) industrial ecosystem, and Hanwha wants to access startups and form synergies with its portfolio companies.