Here comes the good news for artificial intelligence (AI) startups. The parent company of Google and several former Google subsidiaries, Alphabet has officially launched a new firm, Gradient Ventures within Google that will invest in early-stage AI startups, reports CNBC.

The American multinational conglomerate already has GV (formerly Google Ventures) and CapitalG (formerly Google Capital). This newly launch venture fund is not just another Silicon Valley funding source for start ups. According to Anna Patterson, Founder and Managing Director of the firm, Gradient Ventures will be investing in 10 to 15 deals this year, committing $1 million to $8 million in each startup.

Commenting on the development, Patterson said, "If we're really going to help AI happen faster, we needed to be more involved in the community. That's why we decided to do this -- to spur innovation in the AI space."

If reports to be believed, Google is the sole investor in Gradient. Ankit Jain and Shabih Rizvi are Gradient's other partners. As per Patterson there will be an agreement expressly forbidding Google employees from bringing that IP back in-house.

What It Offers Startups?


If one get backing from Gradient, the portfolio companies will have the opportunity to receive advanced AI training from Google. Further with the help of the company startup can gain a Google engineer work onsite and assistance as needed for a set period of time.

Company’s idea is to have a Google engineer do a rotation for six months or perhaps longer if a project needs more time and potentially have the engineer split time across multiple portfolio companies.

Apart from this, the portfolio companies will be able to access training data that Google has accumulated to train their own AI systems.

Aurima, Cape, Cogniac and Dyndrite are few startups that are already participating in the program.

Earlier in June 2017, The tech had rolled out “Website With Google My Business”, a new feature that will help SMBs and startups in India to build a mobile optimised website instantly right from their phone in less than 10 minutes.
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