Heidelberg, 27 January 2021 – AI start-up Aleph Alpha raises seed funding to research, develop and operationalize European Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Founded in 2019, Aleph Alpha develops a new generation of use-case agnostic AI systems pioneering among landmark developments such as GPT-3 (OpenAI) and MuZero (deepmind).
Focus on security-critical environments and thought leadership
Starting with a German GPT-3 for high-security environments, Aleph Alpha plans to expand to new application environments as well as other EU countries and sectors. Essentially, it takes up Europe’s growing concerns about important issues such as data sovereignty and the ability to work with sensitive information when engaging with Non-European AI companies. Aleph Alpha will offer access to its technology via an API, enabling companies and organizations of any size to build their own AGI applications and products. Moreover, it sets its own research highlights to develop European thought leadership on AGI for the creation of a new European AI ecosystem.
"Europe’s capabilities to create and operate sovereign AI, even towards human-level AI, is a key factor for future innovation and value generation." (Prof. Dr. Kristian Kersting, Professor for AI and Machine Learning at TU Darmstadt)
Funding for hiring more talent and technological advancements
The Aleph Alpha team combines experience from companies and organizations such as Cern, Darpa, Apple and other top tier organizations in the field of AI. The funding enables Aleph Alpha to attract more European AI scientists and engineers from around the world for top AI development "Made in Europe". Jonas Andrulis, Founder & CEO of Aleph Alpha and former AI Research Director at Apple's Special Projects Group (SPG): "We want to work with the best talent in Artificial Intelligence on one of the most important projects in the European AI ecosystem."
This truly European vision is backed by leading German tech VCs LEA Partners, 468 Capital and Cavalry Ventures.
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) made in Europe
The global AI landscape is changing rapidly. Current generations of AI are based on small use case-specific models trained on proprietary datasets. In contrast, the latest generation of AI models are use-case agnostic, allowing them to be used in a variety of application domains without explicit training. In the foreseeable future, numerous new AI application domains and business models will be based on these general AI models. US tech giants OpenAI and Microsoft have already launched the first commercial AGI API, named GPT-3. As with cloud technology, Europe is in danger of losing touch with the world tech leaders. With its research, development and exploitation of General Artificial Intelligence "Made in Europe", Aleph Alpha thus strengthens the sovereignty of the European AI ecosystem.
Bernhard Janke from LEA Partners points out:
“Jonas has assembled a top-notch AI engineering team alongside a great industry and scientific network. We are proud to lead this syndicate of exceptional investors and help to build AGI sovereignty out of Europe.”
Ludwig Ensthaler from 468 Capital:
“As an investor specializing in tech, we are deeply impressed with the strong technical expertise of Aleph Alpha’s founder and his ambition to strengthen the sovereignty of the European AI ecosystem. We are convinced that it is Aleph Alpha that will enable companies and organizations of any size to leverage the full potential of Artificial Intelligence.”
Claude Ritter from Cavalry Ventures:
“AGI is the Holy Grail of artificial intelligence. We firmly believe that Jonas and his team at Aleph Alpha possess all the essential elements that are relevant to the development of a leading AGI: A deep understanding of and extensive practical expertise in Machine Learning, a profound comprehension of the needs of politics and industry, and a truly European mindset.”
LEA Partners is an entrepreneurial-minded multi-stage venture capital and private equity firm investing in growth technology companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. With currently EUR 260 million under Management and operating out of Karlsruhe, one of Europe's largest technology clusters, its mission is to fund and support ambitious founders and executives by leveraging them with practical, hands-on growth expertise to achieve market leadership.