Artificial intelligence is a key element in responding to the growing challenges of the 21st century. With a number of applications in big data, computer vision, natural language processing, and more, AI is revolutionizing businesses, industries, and people’s lives. Considered to become one of the main contributors to economic growth and international competitiveness in the upcoming decades, AI innovation is mainly driven by startups – the breeding ground for new technologies.
Though it’s hard to narrow the list down to just 5 candidates, we compiled some of the most successful European startups and scaleups that entered the market within the last few years and have been using AI for good. These teams are addressing enormous challenges and making life better in different sectors, such as health, energy, financial services, manufacturing, mobility and more.
Diabeloop – Founded in 2015, in Grenoble, France, Diabeloop is a medical device company for diabetes with around 90+ employees. By leveraging AI, treatment can be automated and personalised. Specifically, the company’s ‘handset’ device uses sensors to measure blood sugar, and then pump a calculated dose of insulin to keep blood sugar at a healthy level. In December 2019, the French startup broke the European record for therapeutic AI fundraising by securing €31 million Series B round of funding. In 2020, Diabeloop started operating in Germany too, thus taking a further step towards entering the European market and bringing its technologies for automated and personalized management of Type 1 diabetes.
Quantexa – An AI fraud-fighting company founded in 2016 in London, Quantexa empowers organisations to drive better decisions from their data. Using the latest advancements in big data and AI, it solves major challenges across financial crime, customer intelligence, credit risk, fraud and throughout the customer lifecycle. The scaleup of around 300+ employees secured €56 million in a Series C funding round in July 2020, which according to CEO Vishal Marria, will enable them to invest further into Europe, North America and Asia Pacific regions. Quantexa also plans to push into new vertical industries such as the public sector, while developing more platform applications across financial services.
Wandelbots – The Dresden-based startup was founded in 2017 to make it easier for non-programmers to ‘teach’ industrial robots how to perform specific tasks. Operators can teach automation tasks by demonstration. The software builds a machine learning model based on several demonstrations and generates automation workflows. In June 2020, German startup Wandelbots of around 100 people closed €25 million in a Series B funding round and is currently playing a leading role in reshaping manufacturing as we know it. The latest funding fuels plans of global expansion and also accelerates time-to-market for TracePen, the world’s first ‘no code’ handheld device that lets humans teach robots.
EasyMile – Easymile (founded in 2014) is a pioneering AI company in driverless technology and smart mobility solutions. Based in Toulouse, France, the fast-growing scaleup of 200+ employees develops software to automate transportation platforms without the need for dedicated infrastructure. EasyMile’s cutting-edge technology is revolutionizing passenger and goods transportation, offering completely new mobility options. It has already deployed over 210 driverless projects with more than 320,000 people transported over 250,000 km. Clients include the world’s largest transport operators, city authorities, airports, corporations, business parks, and universities.
Kayrros – Founded in 2016, Kayrros is an advanced data analytics company with a primary focus on the energy sector. The company’s experts use machine learning, satellite imagery, natural language processing, IoT and advanced mathematics to help global energy market players make better investment decisions. The Paris-based scaleup of 125+ employees can deliver actionable intelligence on virtually any asset across the globe, in real-time. Kayrros raised over €30 million in total funding over the last few years, which helped them bring more transparency to energy markets worldwide.
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