Artificial Intelligence Startup AntWorks Got Series A Funding of USD 15 Mn from SBI Investment Co.

AntWorks, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Intelligent Automation company got Series A funding with a $15 million investment by SBI Investment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of SBI Holdings, Inc., which conducts investments and management of venture capital funds, at an undisclosed valuation. This investment will provide AntWorks with an impetus for their next level of growth in Artificial Intelligence & Enterprise RPA, fuel R&D, strengthen their marketing and sales engine, and energize their foray into newer markets.

In addition, in an unusual show of commitment, a joint venture between SBIand AntWorks was also announced to tap the tremendous opportunities in the emerging AI space in South East Asia.

Fuelled by cognitive automation and machine–learning capabilities, AntWorks delivers industry–best RPA — that’s powered by AI — using its ANTstein™ platform to enterprises of all sizes. AntWorks provides a unique code-free RPA product and its one-of-a-kind Cognitive Machine Reading (CMR) engine — that is very rapidly replacing OCR — is the most critical component to any Automation, RPA or digitisation journey for enterprises as it ingests any data type – Structured, Unstructured, Inferred, or Image data.

Asheesh Mehra, Founder and Group CEO says,“When Govind Sandhu and I started AntWorks with a small, passionate group of people, the dream was to create a company that would serve as a catalyst for enterprises on their digitization journey. SBI Holdings reposing this faith in us with both the investment and the joint venture is a validation and an opportunity to grow and come into what we have always believed AntWorks can be – a true leader forging a new path, reimagining business as usual. Today I feel pride in our team who have worked so tirelessly and gratitude towards SBI Holdings and towards every employee, partner, analyst and well-wisher who has been on this journey with us. May we remain fresh in our approach, fearless in embracing change and fast in learning, adapting and delivering on everything we stand for as AntWorks.”

As a relatively new entrant, AntWorks has already made a global impact in the space and is consistently benchmarked against competitors who have been in the space for far longer. The AntWorks differentiator is in bringing together all three pieces of the Automation puzzle, effortlessly and under one umbrella — Data Ingestion, RPA, and Artificial Intelligence.

“AntWorks’ has risen through the ranks of global RPA, Automation and Artificial Intelligence companies with a ferocity that’s unprecedented in the industry. We are excited with the possibilities of ANTstein™and look forward to their growth in the Asian region through our joint venture, as well as globally,” said Mr. Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, President, and CEO of SBI Holdings, Inc. “SBI Group is actively involved in introducing RPA solutions to financial institutions in Japan and strongly believes in the future of this field.”

Highlights of AntWorks’ capabilities, enterprise automation solutions, and business growth:

• Providing solutions for about 450+ customers and with a presence in 4 continents, AntWorks is building a business that works with a diverse range of verticals and creates unique Deep Automation™ solutions for every industry.
• Their intelligent automation platform — ANTstein^TMhas made an impressive debut with its user-friendly interface, code free RPA environment, intuitive ML (Machine Learning), & NLM (Natural Language Modelling) capabilities.
• ANTStein™ is unmatched in the industry for both its deep automation capability and its ability to meet diverse AI requirements across industries.
• AntWorks’ advanced capabilities in AI, NLP, and NLM, allow training of BOTs which are proficient and highly accurate while performing higher-value tasks.
• In a marketplace that is growing at 10X multiples, AntWorks has the only end-to-end automation offering in the market built using the fundamentals of fractal science.
• AntWorks has performed at an annual revenue growth in 3-digit multiples.
• Analytics Insight included AntWorks in their annual report of the 10 most innovative companies in Machine Learning for July 2018. They were also awarded the IDC Digital Disruptor of the Year for 2017 apart from a number of other accolades and analyst mentions over the last 18 months.
• SQUARE, the new RPA product release is slated for Q4 of this calendar year and details will be released closer to launch.

“With this investment we will work together with SBI Group to bring end-to-end, AI-based Enterprise RPA to the globe in a way not done before. Our goal is to empower enterprises in emerging markets like Philippines, India, China, etc. — by unleashing the limitless potential of Machine Learning and Cognitive Automation.”  says Govind Sandhu, Co-Founder and CFO, AntWorks.

The funding that we have received, and the repute of our investors will only bolster our efforts to forge ahead. Our ANTstein^TMplatform will be leveraged to automate administration and augment human judgement, creating new criteria for success: collaboration capabilities, information sharing, experimentation, learning, and decision-making effectiveness. I am excited about this investment from SBI Group and I welcome them to the board as their contribution will be game-changing, for us at AntWorks and for the industry at large,” says Asheesh Mehra in his closing remarks.