Early stage venture capital firm SRI Capital has made a strategic investment, an undisclosed amount, in edge AI (artificial intelligence) technology start-up edgetensor.
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and having a development centre in Bengaluru, the startup is focused on making state-of-the-art edge-based AI affordable and accessible to the mass market.
“What sets edgetensor apart is its proprietary AI inference engine that uses deep learning algorithms optimised for low-cost edge computing devices such as a smart phone that can process 30 to 40 frames per second by only sending event-driven information to the cloud. edgetensor’s solution works with a wide range of edge hardware devices and is compatible with most of the cameras,” SRI Capital said on Tuesday.
The tech has applications in markets such as video security as well as applications in mobility, personalised robotics, smart cities, smart retail, and marketing. edgetensor’s AI based SDK provides a minimum of 6X reduction in cost or more on the edge plus a 1000X in cloud savings.The SDK can also be used for human detection and pose tracking, vehicle detection and identification and licence plate recognition.
Founders of edgetensor Rajesh Narasimha and Soumitry J. Ray obtained their PhDs from the Georgia Institute of Technology and between them share more than 75 patents and publications and over a decade of industry experience. Both were part of metaio, a German AR startup acquired by Apple in 2015. The extended team of the start-up comprises computer vision and machine learning experts and software engineers that bring together experience in cross-platform and mobile development along with cloud back-end expertise.
“We are excited to have SRI Capital as our lead investor since they bring a wealth of expertise in enterprise tech to help us scale the business,” said Mr.Narasimha.
Founder and Managing Partner at SRI Capital Sashi Reddi said edgetensor had the potential to be a serious player in this multi-billion dollar market for affordable AI on low-end edge devices.
SRI Capital is focused on funding innovative start-ups primarily in the US and in India.
