Microsoft Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of software provider Microsoft, launched a specialised fund on Monday that will invest in artificial intelligence technology startups.
The fund will make investments sized similarly to Microsoft Ventures’ other deals but will chiefly target companies that can promise “strong financial returns” rather than non-profit organisations. The name and size of the fund have not yet been disclosed.
Nagraj Kashyap, corporate vice-president of Microsoft Ventures, said in a blog post announcing the fund: “We will make investments in startups that are responsibly harnessing the promise of AI to empower people and businesses.
“Companies in this fund will help people and machines work together to increase access to education, teach new skills and create jobs, enhance the capabilities of existing workforces and improve the treatment of diseases, to name just a few examples.”
The fund’s first investment is in Canada-based AI incubator Element AI, for which it provided an undisclosed amount. Element AI, which operates out of a research lab in Montreal, will work with corporates partners and research institutions to incubate and launch AI startups.
Microsoft Ventures has now supplied funding for 19 companies this year since it reorganised in May 2016 and resumed making direct investments, and Kashyap said the addition of the AI fund was expected to increase the rate of deals in which it is involved.