Investment

A startup launched by a team of former Google DeepMind researchers has raised £3.7 million in a round which saw participation from Google’s chief scientist.

Hiverge is developing an ‘algorithm factory’ to help businesses discover and deploy algorithms that improve operations at scale.

The seed funding round was led by Flying Fish Ventures, with backing from Ahren Innovation Capital and Google’s chief scientist Jeff Dean. 

It will be used to expand research, accelerate product development and bring the technology to market, with businesses able to join an early-access waitlist.

Algorithms underpin everything from search results to logistics, yet most companies still rely on generic solutions. 

The Cambridge-headquartered company says this leaves businesses struggling with rising system complexity, limited resources and the high cost of designing tailored algorithms.

Its platform, called the Hive, uses program synthesis to automatically generate and optimise algorithms for specific business challenges, which continually adapts algorithms to changing environments.

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The founders include CEO Alhussein Fawzi, an MIT Innovators Under 35 award winner; CTO Bernardino Romera-Paredes, part of the Nobel prize-winning AlphaFold team; and chief science officer Hamza Fawzi, a professor at the University of Cambridge.

These figures helped pioneer algorithm discovery at DeepMind, contributing to projects including AlphaTensor, FunSearch and the early development of AlphaEvolve, which boosted the efficiency of Google’s data centres and AI training systems.

“Our quantum research demands highly specialised algorithmic approaches,” said Konstantinos Meichanetzidis, head of product development and AI strategy at Quantinuum, which is already working with Hiverge. 

“We’re excited to be collaborating with Hiverge and using its platform to discover novel quantum algorithms. 

“We see strong potential for this partnership to accelerate the scientific breakthroughs we’re pursuing.”

Fawzi added: “Algorithms drive the revenue of most businesses today – from finance to AI inference. 

“But algorithms of today are struggling to keep up with challenges of scale and speed, and traditional methods aren’t working anymore. 

“At Hiverge, we are creating algorithmic superintelligence, giving companies the ability to discover and deploy not just new algorithms, but ones that are tailored to their specific tasks.”

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