Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka's Vianai raises $140 million in funding from SoftBank

Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka founded Vianai Systems, a human-centred Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform and products company announced that it has raised $140 million in Series B financing from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and others. The company had raised $50 million earlier in a seed round.  According to Vishal Sikka, AI can play a transformative role in Indian business and Indian society.

Other investors in the company include Jim Davidson (co-Founder of Silver Lake), Henry Kravis and George Roberts (co-founders of KKR), and Jerry Yang (founding partner of AME and co-founder of Yahoo! Inc.). Joining Vianai’s previously announced advisory board is Fei-Fei Li, co-director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. The two-year-old startup will use the funding to accelerate the delivery of its human-centred Artificial Intelligence platform and products to enterprises worldwide.

Vianai Systems CEO raise $140 million funding

“While we see some early examples already, the true benefits will come from a human-centered approach, where AI amplifies human judgement. Beyond this, my dream is to see India’s youth as a massive creative force that can use tools, like Vianai's platform, to build human-centered AI systems for India and for the world,” said Sikka, who served as Infosys CEO for three years before resigning in 2017 over a tussle between the company board and founder-shareholders.

Vianai Systems is working towards pioneering a human-centred AI approach that amplifies human judgment thus empowering domain experts with AI tools to deliver powerful business value. Vianai has already delivered successful business outcomes to numerous world-leading enterprises, claimed the company.

“Vianai’s human-centred approach to AI has been critical to the design of an advanced early warning system for our underwriters. The system, which extracts actionable insights from non-traditional data sources, has the potential to drive significant business value for us, and our customers,” said Torsten Jeworrek, Member of the Group Executive Board and Global Head of Reinsurance at Munich Re. “With Vianai as an innovation partner, Munich Re is on a path towards the breakthrough digital transformation of our core business, and that of the industry as a whole.”

“With the AI revolution underway, we believe Vianai’s human-centred AI platform and products provide global enterprises with operational and customer intelligence to make better business decisions,” said Deep Nishar, Senior Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers.

(Image: AP, Twitter- USISPFOROUM)