“Above the Trend Line” – Your Industry Rumor Central for 5/5/2022

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Above the Trend Line: your industry rumor central is a recurring feature of insideBIGDATA. In this column, we present a variety of short time-critical news items grouped by category such as M&A activity, people movements, funding news, industry partnerships, customer wins, rumors and general scuttlebutt floating around the big data, data science and machine learning industries including behind-the-scenes anecdotes and curious buzz. Our intent is to provide you a one-stop source of late-breaking news to help you keep abreast of this fast-paced ecosystem. We’re working hard on your behalf with our extensive vendor network to give you all the latest happenings. Heard of something yourself? Tell us! Just e-mail me at: daniel@insidebigdata.com. Be sure to Tweet Above the Trend Line articles using the hashtag: #abovethetrendline.

Let’s start off the latest edition of our big data rumor central with some new funding news … Synthesis AI, a pioneer in synthetic data technologies to build advanced computer vision AI models, announced it has closed $17 million in Series A financing led by new investor 468 Capital, with additional participation from Sorenson Ventures and Strawberry Creek Ventures and existing investors, Bee Partners, PJC, iRobot Boom Capital and Kubera Venture Capital.The latest round brings Synthesis AI’s total funding to over $24 million. The new funds will allow Synthesis AI to grow its world-class team and introduce new products to enable companies to build more advanced computer vision models faster … Edge Delta, a leading observability platform that analyzes and extracts data insights using distributed stream processing and federated machine learning, today announced a $63 million Series B round led by Quiet Capital, with additional new investors BAM Elevate, Earlybird Digital East, Geodesic Capital, Kin Ventures, ServiceNow, Cisco and all insiders Menlo Ventures, MaC Venture Capital, and Amity Ventures also participating. Edge Delta will use the funding to accelerate corporate growth, including recruitment, marketing and product innovation … RelationalAI, the creator of a breakthrough relational knowledge graph system, has raised a total of $122M after closing $75M in Series B funding. The Series B round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from existing investors Madrona Venture Group, Addition, and Menlo Ventures. RelationalAI will use the funds to accelerate product development and go-to-market activities for its relational knowledge graph system … Capella Space, a leading earth observation company, announced a $97M Series C financing round led by NightDragon, with significant participation from existing investors DCVC and Cota Capital. Capella plans to use the funding to expand its offerings and continue its mission to provide 24-7 access to frequent, timely and high-quality satellite analytics and imagery products to customers with demanding geospatial intelligence needs worldwide … Union.ai, provider of the open source workflow orchestration platform Flyte, announced they have closed $10 million in seed funding led by NEA with additional participation from a select group of angels to accelerate the growth of Flyte and provide even greater assistance to its user community. The investment will be used to further grow the Flyte open source ecosystem while building out a commercially available Union Cloud platform … Enso, the company making data analysis accessible to everyone, launched out of stealth with $16.5M in funding from SignalFire, Khosla Ventures, Day One Ventures, Decacorn Capital, Y Combinator, Samsung Next, Harvard’s Endowment, West Coast Endeavors, Innovation Nest, and more. Enso’s open source platform makes analyzing complex data as simple as using Excel so that non-technical users can autonomously access the insight they need while technical users can accelerate their workflows. The platform democratizes data so that business users can now access the level of insight once reserved for data scientists … Encore, the Backend Development Engine for rapidly building scalable distributed systems, today announced $3 million in its seed round led by Crane Venture Partners with participation from Acequia Capital, Essence Venture Capital and Third Kind Venture Capital. Notable angel investors include Bucky Moore, partner at Kleiner Perkins, and head of product at Google DeepMind Mehdi Ghissassi, among others. Encore is also announcing the general availability of Encore Backend Engine based on the open source Encore Go Framework.

In M&A activity we learned … Ripcord, the robotic digitization and document intelligence company, announced its acquisition of LearningPal, an advanced machine learning-native Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Document Understanding technology based in Silicon Valley. The acquisition furthers Ripcord’s broader objective of providing organizations with a frictionless and scalable document-to-data experience and accelerating their digital transformation … Uniphore, a leader in Conversational  Automation announced that it has acquired Colabo, an AI-powered knowledge automation solution that specializes in extracting and utilizing information from structured and unstructured documents in real time. 

In the new partnerships, alignments and collaborations department we have … Arcadia, a leading data analytics platform for healthcare and life sciences, and Datavant, a leader in helping organizations securely connect health data announced a partnership to enable de-identified connectivity of Arcadia’s electronic health record data for life sciences research and commercial analytics. Arcadia’s real-world data (RWD) is built on an active EHR and claims-based patient population growing at 20% YoY with comprehensive visibility across payers, multiple sites of care, and the entire clinical patient journey … Onna, the knowledge discovery leader, announced a partnership with Infinia ML, a provider of intelligent document processing and insight solutions. The partnership will combine centralized unstructured data in Onna with Infinia ML’s machine learning technology, enhancing customers’ ability to discover knowledge siloed in their collaboration, communication, and content applications. This will unlock new capabilities to solve custom business challenges, from contract classification and personally identifiable information (PII) detection, to sentiment trend analysis, entity extraction, and more … DataCore Software, the authority on software-defined storage, and Atempo, Data Protection and Data Management independent software vendor, announced the integration of Atempo Miria Data Management platform with DataCore Swarm object storage software … Mendix, a Siemens business and global leader in modern enterprise application development, and Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, announced that they have signed an expanded partnership agreement to empower Atos to leverage the Mendix low-code platform to drive hyper-automation and decarbonization in enterprises. This partnership with Mendix enhances the longstanding, trusted partnership between Atos and Siemens, cementing Atos’ commitment to providing world-class, low-code solutions for global businesses … VAST Data, the data platform company for the AI-powered world, announced a strategic alliance with Vertica, the unified analytics platform, to help enterprises consolidate their structured and unstructured data silos to democratize data for real-time data exploration, analytics and insights. Uniting VAST’s all-flash Universal Storage data platform with Vertica’s analytical database, provides customers with the performance, scale, data protection and resiliency needed for today’s modern and converged data lake and data warehouse applications … Lexalytics®, an InMoment® Company and pioneer in AI-based NLP technology, announced that Pulsar has chosen Lexalytics’ on-premise, AI-driven Salience™ NLP engine to power its audience intelligence platform. The original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement brings best-in-class text analytics and sentiment analysis, along with natively processed, multilingual content across channels to Pulsar’s global customer base in the areas of social listening, reputation intelligence, and customer experience management. The partnership will also give Pulsar customers the ability to analyze consumer emotions, like fear, hope, happiness, and surprise to better understand consumer reactions to marketing campaigns, current events, and programs … Privitar, a leader in modern data provisioning, announced a strategic partnership with Denodo, a leader in data integration and management software. With this new partnership, Privitar and Denodo are aligning to advance modern data provisioning and put safe data at the core of any data mesh and logical data fabric powered by data virtualization … AI leader Altada Solutions announced they have partnered with SlyceData, a data management platform for investors, expanding on its technology capabilities to better serve the data analytics market across industries. The partnership will enable SlyceData to provide greater value to a wider range of financial institutions, and the combined Altada-SlyceData solution will provide clients with access to new data sources. These advanced capabilities will enable financial institutions to optimize their performance by making data-driven decisions quickly and cost effectively … VAST Federal, a VAST Data subsidiary providing government agencies with mission-ready data platform solutions, announced a collaboration with Mercury Systems (NASDAQ: MRCY), a leader in trusted, secure mission-critical technologies for aerospace and defense, to deliver rugged, high-performance storage solutions for edge-based data capture and AI computing … IBASE Technology Inc. (TPEx: 8050), a leading provider of robust embedded computing platforms, announced its partnership with Artificial Intelligence (AI) chipmaker Hailo. IBASE and Hailo are launching the 11th Gen Intel® Core™ U-Series-based (formerly Tiger Lake) ASB210-953-AI edge AI computing system, targeted at smart Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) applications in multiple sectors, including smart cities, industry 4.0, and the automotive industry … Nrby, Inc. a leader in dynamic location intelligence for service provider operations, and Sisense, a leading AI-driven platform for infusing analytics everywhere, announced that they have partnered to create Nrby VU™, a new business intelligence tool that provides unparalleled visibility into network events, trends, and workforce activities for broadband service providers … AiAdvertising, Inc. (AIAD), an artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) data science and technology company, announced that it has entered into a License and Development Agreement with Genus AI.   

In the people movement category we heard … Sumo Logic, (NASDAQ: SUMO), the SaaS analytics platform to enable reliable and secure cloud-native applications, announced the appointment of Tej Redkar to the newly formed position of Chief Product Officer and Sophie Kitson as Chief Human Resources Officer, effective immediately. Tej and Sophie bring deep experience globally scaling product development and human resource functions respectively and will report directly to Sumo Logic CEO Ramin Sayar as members of the company’s senior executive team … AtScale, a leading provider of semantic layer solutions for modern business intelligence and data science teams, announced the appointment of John Langton as vice president of AI engineering.John joins the AtScale executive team to lead engineering efforts for the company’s fast-growing ML/AI business. He will oversee the development of technical strategy and architecture delivery, and work closely with customers to innovate on new approaches to integrate the AtScale semantic layer with AI to accelerate time to value and drive business outcomes … CLARA Analytics, a leading provider of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the commercial insurance industry, announced that it has made two new strategic hires, adding Ram Rangaraj as the company’s new Chief Technology Officer and enlisting Mubbin Rabbani as the new Vice President of Product … CallMiner, a leading provider of conversation intelligence to drive business improvement, today announced the appointment of Rachel Simone as Chief Information Officer (CIO). For the last three years, Simone has served as CallMiner’s Vice President of Enterprise Applications and Technology,building the company’s information systems and supporting a growing network of employees. In the CIO role, she will continue to spearhead CallMiner’s business applications development and overall information infrastructure in support of the company’s global growth and long-term, strategic goals … Signal AI, a leading global decision augmentation company, transforming how business leaders make decisions, announced the appointment of Emily Westgate to Chief Marketing Officer. Westgate has been with Signal AI since 2019, serving as Vice President of marketing and has been key in creating a strategic marketing function, and driving Signal AI’s marketing vision as the global high growth data and technology company has scaled … LogicMonitor, a leading SaaS-based observability and IT operations data collaboration platform for enterprises and managed service providers (MSP), announced the appointment of two new executive hires: Alyene Schneidewind as Chief Performance Officer, a new strategic role reimagined by LogicMonitor CEO Christina Kosmowski to be the intersection of people performance and business growth, and Julie Solliday as Chief Customer Officer … Mperativ, the Revenue Marketing Platform that aligns marketing with sales, customer success, and finance on the cause and effect relationships between marketing activities and revenue outcomes, announced the appointment of Nohyun Myung as Vice President of Applied Data Science, Machine Learning and AI. In this new role, Nohyun will lead the development of new Mperativ platform capabilities to help marketers realize the value of AI predictions and seamlessly connect data across the customer journey without having to build a data science practice … Panasas®, a long-standing leader in high-performance data solutions, announced the appointments of Jeff Whitaker as VP of Marketing and Product Management, Kieran Penwill and Chris Sassone as Sales Directors of EMEA and APAC, respectively, and Mike Sheppard as Global Director of Channels and Alliances … Gigamon, a leading deep observability company, announced the appointment of Shane Buckley as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective Monday, April 18, 2022. After 10 years, Paul Hooper is stepping down from the CEO role but will remain an active member of the Gigamon Board of Directors … Amplitude, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMPL), a pioneer in digital optimization, announced the appointment of Lambert Walsh as its first Chief Customer Officer (CCO). With more than 25 years of experience, Walsh will lead Amplitude’s customer success organization and partner with its customers to unlock insights, build winning products, and drive business growth. Walsh will join Amplitude’s executive leadership team and report to Matt Heinz, Amplitude’s Chief Revenue Officer … PowerFleet, Inc. (Nasdaq: PWFL), a global leader of Internet-of-Things (IoT) solutions that manage enterprise assets for seamless business operations, has appointed software veteran Jim Zeitunian as the company’s new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of PowerFleet. Zeitunian will report to CEO Steve Towe and focus on executing PowerFleet’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) transformation.  

In new customer wins we have … Citi Ventures, the innovation arm of Citibank, is using DataRobot for fraud prevention, customer personalization, customer retention, credit underwriting, hiring and equitable decision-making. The company selected DataRobot to help accelerate their AI use cases and internal adoption … Yellowbrick Data, a leader in Distributed Data Cloud architecture for data warehousing, announced that Zurich North America (Zurich), one of the largest providers of insurance solutions and services, selected Yellowbrick to replace its legacy on-premise data warehouse with a robust cloud-based architecture. Yellowbrick has enabled Zurich to decrease the time to produce business-critical, end-of-month reports by 55%. Zurich was also able to accelerate SAS processes from hours to minutes … Gradient AI, a leading enterprise software provider of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions in the insurance industry announced that True Captive Insurance, a provider of innovative healthcare solutions for employers of all sizes, has selected its SAIL™ solution to help reduce group healthcare insurance costs while maintaining a high standard of care for member companies.

In new patent news we heard … Altada Technology Solutions, a global provider of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that supercharge data-driven decision making in the financial services, travel/security and healthcare sectors, announced the filing of three Track 1 U.S. patent applications designed to protect core intellectual property within Altada’s Doc Intelligence solution. These pending Track 1 patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) include a computer-implemented method, a data processing system, and a computer program product for training a natural language processing model to identify entity data in a data set. Altada is filing these fast-track patent applications to deliver patent-protected, next-generation digital transformation technology to its customers. The company’s sophisticated AI platform is differentiated through the use of unique open-domain and closed-domain question-answering models and a text training pipeline, as well as a segment training pipeline. Its patent applications will protect proprietary Altada technology that differs significantly from existing computer vision and process automation solutions. By looking forward and securing key intellectual property around the review and extraction of data from complex electronic documents, Altada and its customers gain a long-term strategic advantage.

Deep Learning Patent Update – provided by Nelson E. (Nick) Brestoff, J.D., M.S. Exec. Manager & Chief Inventor, Intraspexion LLC. The bar chart below shows that, at the end of April, the total number of new “deep learning” patents in 2022 is 396. That 396 figure x 3 projects to an estimated total of 1,188 for 2022. The total for 2021 was 1,104.

Of the 2,946 “deep learning” patents issued since January 1, 2017, my first patent — No. 9,552,548 (“the ‘548 patent”) — is No. 3, with a priority date of July 1, 2016. That patent uses deep learning to identify a threat or risk, e.g., the risk of litigation, and to provide an early warning that enables prevention.
No. 9,760,850 is a “continuation” of the ‘548 patent with a significant “one word” change in the claims.
No. 10,095,992 is the first issued patent to use both blockchain and deep learning in the claims. It explains how to build a deep learning model of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. These breakthrough patents — and related proprietary software — are now for sale.

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