Vianai Systems raises additional $140M to build upon strong customer adoption

BengaluruVianai Systems, a Human-Centered AI platform and products company, today announced that it has raised $140M in a Series B financing from SoftBank Vision Fund 2* and several industry luminaries. Vianai will use the new capital to accelerate the delivery of its human-centered AI platform and products to enterprises worldwide.

For many enterprises, AI has not lived up to its hype. AI’s true potential originates from the ability to put humans at the center of technological solutions. Vianai’s pioneering human-centered AI approach 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.

“Vianai’s human-centered 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 Dr. 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 breakthrough digital transformation of our core business, and that of the industry as a whole.”

Vianai’s customer success, cutting-edge technology and management expertise has the company poised for growth.

Dr. Fei-Fei Li, Co-Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, said, “I am pleased to join Vianai as an advisor, as Vishal and his team work to make human-centered AI a reality for businesses. I believe that AI is made by humans, intended to behave by humans, and, ultimately, to impact human lives and human society. Its success depends on how humans and AI work together.”

“With the AI revolution underway, we believe Vianai’s human-centered 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. “We are pleased to partner with Dr. Sikka and the Vianai team to support their ambition to fulfill AI’s promise to drive fundamental digital transformations.”

“In the time to come, AI can play a transformative role in Indian business and Indian society.  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 Dr. Vishal Sikka, Founder and CEO of Vianai.

Vianai investors 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 Dr. Fei-Fei Li (co-director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI).