H2O.ai, a US-based developer of artificial intelligence software development tools, raised $72.5m yesterday in a series D round co-led by insurance group Ping An’s Global Voyager Fund.
Investment banking firm Goldman Sachs co-led the round, which additionally featured financial services firm Wells Fargo and venture capital firm Nexus Venture Partners.
Founded in 2012 as 0xdata, H2O.ai markets an open-source artificial intelligence (AI) software development platform that enables data scientists to create AI-driven models for purposes such as running self-driving vehicles.
The idea is to level the playing field for the development of AI technologies in order to foster their adoption across multiple industries. H2O.ai’s client base includes computing technology provider IBM, mass media group Comcast and banking firm Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The funding will help drive H2O.ai’s innovation, sales and marketing strategies as it prepares for an international expansion that will be assisted by Ping An in China and other Asian markets.
H2O.ai said it will also invest series D capital in its work for wildlife and water conservation-focused impact AI initiative AI4Good, as well as a scheme providing its resources to college students and researchers for free.
Jade Mandel, vice-president for Goldman Sachs’s principal strategic investments group, will join H2O.ai board of directors in connection with the round, which brought the company’s overall funding to $147m, it said.
Wells Fargo and graphics processing unit maker Nvidia co-led its $40m series C round in late 2017 and were joined by insurers New York Life and Transamerica – the latter through its Transamerica Ventures unit – as well as Nexus Venture Partners and Crane Venture Partners.
Transamerica had already invested in H2O.ai’s $20m series B round in 2015, which was led by Paxion Capital Partners and backed by Nexus and Capital One Growth Ventures, financial services firm Capital One’s investment arm, in addition to an $8.9m series A in 2014 that included Nexus, Michael Marks, Ash Bhardwaj and Rakesh Matur.