AI hope convinces financiers
Aleph Alpha attracts well-known investors
06/30/2023, 4:48 p.m
The deal seems as good as dry: the AI startup Aleph Alpha from Heidelberg has apparently managed to raise fresh capital. Among the financiers are not only two large chip companies.
According to a newspaper report, the Heidelberg AI startup Aleph Alpha is heading towards collecting more than 100 million euros from investors. As part of the second, so-called Series B financing round, the chip companies Intel and Nvidia and the software company SAP want to join Aleph Alpha as venture capitalists, reports the “Handelsblatt”. This round is “an important signal for the German AI ecosystem,” according to investors.
Intel will lead the financing round with an investment of 25 million euros, the paper quotes those involved as saying. SAP will then follow with around ten million euros. Existing investors from Germany such as Earlybird or 468 Capital should also participate in the financing round. According to the report, the valuation of Aleph Alpha will rise to around 450 million euros after the cash injection. According to the newspaper, the companies involved did not want to comment
The so-called Large Language Model from Aleph Alpha had recently performed similarly well in a standardized performance comparison with its AI language model Luminous as the previously leading AI specialist OpenAI or the model from the Facebook group Meta. With Luminous, a European AI language model has landed on an equal footing with the American tech giants for the first time, explained founder Jonas Andrulis in February of this year.
You have not only reached the level of performance, but have also been much more efficient. Aleph Alpha users should soon be able to understand where the artificial intelligence gets its information from. According to the “Handelsblatt”, however, the startup needs more capital for the necessary information.
In February, Andrulis said in an interview with ntv.de that it is now being decided who will shape the future of AI and who can dominate the value chain. “Of course, there have been better times for collecting money from investors. But artificial intelligence is the topic of the moment. Investors have recognized that too.”