Vicarious Announces $50M Series C Funding Led by Khosla Ventures
Press Releases
Jul 25, 2017
SAN FRANCISCO, July 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Vicarious, an artificial intelligence company, today announced a $50M Series C round of financing led by Khosla Ventures, a venture capital fund founded by Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and a former general partner of Kleiner Perkins.
Vicarious is developing artificial general intelligence for robots. By combining insights from generative probabilistic models and neuroscience, the company has developed unique architecture that trains faster, adapts more readily, and generalizes more broadly than other AI approaches that are more commonly used.
“For over a decade, robots have possessed the physical dexterity necessary for a wide range of tasks, but are limited by their reliance on expensive hand-coded software and high-precision mechanical parts. The software that Vicarious is building will help change that,” said Mr. Khosla. “Vicarious’ approach to artificial intelligence allows robots to behave in smarter and more human-like ways than other approaches,” added Khosla Venture’s CTO Sven Strohband, who will be joining Vicarious’ board of directors.
“This is a big step forward for us. Robotics is a domain where causal understanding and dealing with uncertainty are very important. Our researchers are excited to be tackling the problems that touch many industries,” said Vicarious co-founder Dr. Dileep George. “The partnership with Khosla is an obvious fit. They share our vision of the future and understand the incredible implications of building truly intelligent machines,” added Vicarious co-founder D. Scott Phoenix.
About Vicarious
Vicarious is an artificial intelligence company that uses the computational principles of the brain to develop general intelligence for robots. The company was founded in 2010 by Dr. Dileep George and D. Scott Phoenix. Previously Dr. George was Chief Technology Officer at Numeta, a company he co-founded with Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky (PALM, HAND) while completing his PhD at Stanford University. Before co-founding Vicarious, Mr. Phoenix was Entrepreneur in Residence at Founders Fund and CEO of Frogmetrics, a touchscreen analytics company he co-founded through the Y Combinator program. For more information about Vicarious, please visit www.vicarious.com.
About Khosla Ventures
Khosla Ventures is a venture capitalist firm that provides venture assistance and strategic advice to entrepreneurs working on breakthrough technologies. The firm was founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. The firm focuses on transformative technology in consumer, enterprise, education, advertising, financial services, semiconductors, health, big data, agriculture/food, sustainable energy and robotics. Khosla Ventures is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. For more information about the firm’s activities, please visit https://www.khoslaventures.com.
Media Contact:
Devin Gribbons
Email: devin@vicarious.com
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SOURCE Vicarious FPC Inc