British AI provider raises $33m in Series A financing
London-based computer vision specialist V7 Ltd has baged $33m in Series A financing co-led by AI-focused Radical Ventures and Temasek.
Existing investors Air Street Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, and Partech also participated in the large Series A financing round.
V7’s platform allows to build and improve computer vision AI models through customisable low-code workflows, which may allow to speed up i.e. FDA- and CE-compliant medical image or video annotation, such as delivered by MRI or CT, significantly. According to the AI specialist, it is possible to cut data labeling time by 10 times. In fact, V7 started its business in the medical imaging field and in drug development.
However, V7 is not only focussed on life sciences applications, where it is already collaborating with GE Healtcare, Genmab, Volpara Health or Siemens etc, but wants to help automate the training-data process for AI models for any company that aims to automate any visual task.
According to V7, machine learning-powered computer vision models are helping tackle a range of challenges, from spotting cancers to robotic farming. However, when building an machine-learning system, 80% of a team’s time is spent managing training data. This is a slow process that helps refine and augment the knowledge that models have learned by having humans perform laborious, manual labeling
tasks. V7s programmatic labeling workflows use AI models and minimal human steering to apply labels to data at scale.
Auto Annotate is a general-purpose AI model built into V7. It automatically segments objects in images and video, acting as a co-pilot for human annotators. The company’s promise is: after about 100 human-guided examples, V7s platform can start identifying objects at scale on autopilot, routing edge-cases it doesnt yet understand to human reviewers.
”The next generation of software wont run on code, it will run on models fueled by training data. We let our clients easily turn human knowledge into AI models, improving the safety and accuracy of AI. This is incredibly powerful, and in the right hands, can literally save lives. If we want to build software that tackles unsolved frontiers in human health, or our climate, this is the only way,” said Alberto Rizzoli, CEO of V7.
V7 wants to use the money from the financing continue its expansion into the US, with an on-the-ground presence in early 2023, scaling the V7 team, and expanding its customer base.
