US-based machine learning (ML) technology developer Petuum completed a $93m series B round led by an unnamed subsidiary of telecommunications and internet group SoftBank on Tuesday.
Venture capital firm Advantech Capital also took part in the round, having led a $15m series A round for Petuum in November 2016 that included internet group Tencent, Northern Light Venture Capital and Oriza Ventures.
Petuum has developed an operating system and virtualisation interface that makes it easier to create ML or deep learning applications on different types of hardware that can be managed from a single terminal.
The funding will go to hiring technical and business employees as Petuum looks to bring its PetuumOS operating system to areas that have been slow to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) despite its potential, such as the healthcare or manufacturing industries.
Eric Xing, Petuum’s founder, CEO and chief scientist, said: “We believe this technology should be standardised, accessible, and mass-producible, so that all can benefit from AI, ML and deep learning.
“We have surmounted many technical challenges as we work toward a standard and universal AI platform, and are grateful to SoftBank for believing in our company’s mission to change the future of enterprise AI by providing first-class capabilities at scale to anyone who needs them.”
Petuum is a spinoff of Carnegie Mellon University, where Xing is associate head of the Machine Learning department.