Fast-growing start-up Peak has secured £9.7m funding.
The Manchester firm has developed an artificial intelligence system used by enterprise clients.
After Peak topped our North West Tech 50 ranking last year, CEO Richard Potter told BusinessCloud of its plans to dominate the global AI market.
Following the Series A round led by existing investors MMC Ventures and Praetura Ventures, he described the potential for data and AI as “huge”.
“We wanted to ensure the business was on a strong footing going into 2020, even before the tragic spread of coronavirus. From a financing perspective, this meant having the capital to fuel our growth plans and the R&D investments we are making in our AI system and core technologies. Now, more than ever, I’m glad we did that,” he said.
“Perhaps more importantly, the very heart of Peak’s mission is to help all businesses do great things with data. Practically this means being able to compete in the AI era; to transform and embrace the potential that data and AI brings.
“The potential is huge, as our work has shown over the years, with many of our customers achieving significant increases in revenue growth and profit margins. Making that shift, however, is hard. For many businesses, it is unattainable.
“Yet our mission means enabling every company to be great in the AI era. That’s why we’re continuing to invest in both our technology and our team; to make AI accessible such that our customers can make the leap to becoming AI companies themselves.
“Our AI system is already at the forefront of a brand new market for enterprise AI systems and is developing at a rapid pace. Over the coming months you’ll continue to see more new product releases and new features added thanks to the continued hard work of our team and the amazing feedback we’re getting from our customers.”
The fresh investment brings Peak’s total amount of funding to $18.5m.
Peak’s full-stack system combines the required infrastructure, data processing, AI workflow and applications in a single SaaS product.
It says this removes or greatly reduces the need to build in-house teams of data scientists and data engineers, enabling companies to become AI-driven in a matter of weeks rather than years.
“Having witnessed the impressive market traction and ongoing adoption of the Peak AI System we’re delighted to be further supporting the team on their journey,” said Oliver Richards, Partner at MMC Ventures.
“We have been particularly impressed by the real, tangible business outcomes being realized by Peak customers and the way in which Richard, Atul, and Dave are building a world class team.”
“Richard and the team are spearheading the mass-market adoption of AI in the enterprise and have built an amazing customer roster of leading global brands. We’re delighted to be doubling down on our investment as Peak continues to pioneer the enterprise AI System category,” said Mike Fletcher, Group CEO at Praetura Ventures.