Tunisia-founded enterprise AI startup InstaDeep raises $7m Series A

Tunisia-founded enterprise AI startup InstaDeep has raised $7 million in Series A funding, the startup announced last week, adding that the investment was led by leading Tunisian private equity firm AfricInvest and joined by Endeavor Catalyst.

Founded in Tunis in 2014 by Karim Beguir and Zohra Slim, InstaDeep that’s now headquartered in London, utilizes different advanced machine learning techniques including deep reinforcement learning to bring AI to applications within an enterprise environment, allowing companies to optimize their decision-making process and improve efficiency.

In spite of moving its headquarters to London, InstaDeep continues to maintain a big presence in Tunis, employing over 30 people there including many engineers. According to her LinkedIn profile, Zohra Slim, the co-founder and CTO of InstaDeep is also based in Tunis. The startup apart from Tunis and London has offices in Paris and Lagos as well.

InstaDeep currently offers a set of different AI products and solutions including optimized pattern-recognition, GPU-accelerated insights, and self-learning decision-making systems. Its solutions are currently being used in different industries including logistics, mobility, manufacturing, and energy.

The startup will use this latest investment to support the development of a scalable product platform aimed at empowering enterprises with better decision-making using Artificial Intelligence.

“The new platform marks a milestone for InstaDeep, who has seen sustained growth and achievements since its humble beginnings in Tunisia as a bootstrap in 2014 including being one of the first ever African-founded AI companies to publish original AI research at NeurIPS 2018,” said the company in a statement.

Karim Beguir, co-founder and CEO of InstaDeep, commenting on the occasion, said, “Through our own cutting-edge research, we have developed a platform that goes beyond what we have seen in AI applications in the past. It can tackle challenging optimization and automation challenges in dynamic and complex environments such as, but not limited to, mobility, logistics, manufacturing and energy. We already see that our product is providing real value and ROI for our clients.”

“We want to grow an African AI success story and are on a mission to democratise Machine Learning in Africa. By partnering with AfricInvest, we can leverage their operational expertise and strong business knowledge on the continent, and together accelerate talent and positive use of AI,” he added.

Khaled Ben Jilani, a Senior Partner at AfricInvest, said, “InstaDeep has managed to establish an excellent reputation for delivering solid and unique AI solutions, and we are excited to see what they can deliver next with the support from AfricInvest. We believe the company has a bright future ahead and could lead the development of the AI sector throughout the continent and beyond. AfricInvest will draw on its African business expertise to support InstaDeep’s research and development, and also their talent development program. Together, our combined knowledge will help the African continent rise to the opportunities offered by AI.”

AfricInvest has recently also launched a $170 million fund in partnership with Cathay Innovation to invest in African startups. Source: Mena Bytes