Wednesday 16 January 2019

Machine learning, for the love of Christ!

Uh. I tell you, dear reader(s), what we need is ... human learning, you dig? Then maybe we wouldn't get fucked up situations like Brexit. / Anyway ...

16 January 2019, London. Seldon, the machine learning deployment specialist, today announced a £2.7m funding round led by Amadeus Capital Partners alongside Global Brain Corporation, Techstars and other existing investors.

Global Brain Corporation? Really? Whatever. It sounds like something my old mate Maurice Marble III would dream up.

Seldon is a pioneering global technology business focused on the fast-growing machine intelligence market. Its open-source machine learning deployment platform makes it easier and quicker to manage, serve and optimize machine learning models at scale. The platform is built on cloud-native technologies such as Kubernetes.

Cloud-native technologies? Really? Whatever. The only cloud technologies I know are the ones we get rain from in the sky. I'm a shaman. Old school.

Since its inception in 2014, Seldon has built a global community of loyal users who leverage their diverse industry backgrounds to provide validation and feedback.

Ha! I'll give them some bloody feedback. We want human beings, man! Human learning!

Seldon's initial product offering, Seldon Core, had over 170,000 installs in 2018 and recorded 38% month-on-month growth in H2 2018. In 2019, it will release new enterprise-scale software, Seldon Deploy, which enables data science specialists to move into production more easily with compliance, offering audit trails and approvals, advanced experiments, and model explanations.

Good for them! However, all is vanity. I mean, the Grim Reaper is still watching, in the shadows, like.

Commercial success is being driven by business wins across multiple sectors including fintech and retail sectors, supporting business-critical applications such as FX trading, churn prediction and stock optimization. Seldon was part of Techstars Barclays Accelerator London in 2016 and is a guest advisor to the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence.

Ha! Well, none of this will cut any ice with the Grim Reaper. That dude don't take prisoners.

This seed round is led by Amadeus Capital Partners, one of Europe's most active venture capital investors in AI and machine learning according to Pitchbook, along with Global Brain Corporation, one of the largest Japanese deep technology venture capital investment firms with global presence in Tokyo, London, Seoul, Singapore and San Francisco, and Techstars, who have been supporting Seldon since it took part in the Barclays Accelerator. Existing investors include Force Over Mass Capital, Playfair Capital, Cascade Global and angels, all of whom committed further capital in the round.

Rock me, Amadeus. That's all I can say. / Right, I suppose we better hear from Alex and Alex. 'Do we have to, boss?' Well ... the PR person put a lot of work into this email, Voice, and I don't want to upset him or her. 'Oh, okay.'

Come on, Alex, mate!

Alex Housley, CEO and founder of Seldon observes: "Machine learning is revolutionizing every industry. It has become much easier to build predictive models but deploying and managing these models in production is the limiting factor. The world's most innovative businesses now face the challenge of creating robust, reproducible and compliant production workflows between disparate teams of data scientists, engineers and business leaders. Seldon and our community, customers and partners are creating the new open standard for machine learning deployment across hybrid and multi-cloud environments."

Come on, Alex, son!

Alex van Someren, Managing Partner, Amadeus Capital Partners, said: "There has been a lot of hype around machine learning but real-world applications are where the rubber must now hit the road. Seldon's open standard approach can 'democratize' access to AI's benefits beyond big tech companies. We're pleased to be funding Seldon as it looks to double its team size in 2019."

Okay, okay. Thanks, guys!

...

Right. I haven't recorded my songs yet. I still don't want to. Maybe Friday. Maybe Sunday. 'Your strings, Mikey?' They're holding up fine at the moment, man. They're Elixirs, remember. The best money can buy. And I've got a spare set!

Oh, I'll do my last post of the week late tonight, dear reader(s). Probably a music post, playing tunes and shit. 'Night thoughts?' Yeah, maybe a few night thoughts, too.

By the way, I used to love that TV programme After Dark. Just people sitting around and talking for hours on end. [Oliver Reed!] And this was years before Big Brother.

Anyway, I'll see you later, kook(s).