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University of Cambridge spin-out iKVA has secured £1.5m in seed funding to begin the rollout of its unique artificial intelligence technology for multinationals.
The iKVA management team includes (L-R) Prof. Richard Mortier (CTO), Dr Chris Doran (Chairman), Jon Horden (CEO), Ian Firth (CPO) and Leon Challenger (Head of Sales).
- iKVA uses artificial intelligence (AI) to quickly locate internal and external knowledge for employees in large companies.
- £1.5m investment via Crowdcube and Cambridge Enterprise creates new jobs and further development of the tech.
- iKVA poised to play a key role in the booming AI market.
iKVA (formerly known as Kvasir Analytics) was founded in 2017 by leading academics from the university’s Department of Computer Science and Technology and the Alan Turing Institute.
The fresh £1.5m investment, which is in addition to £175,000 of pre-seed funding secured in 2018, has come from Cambridge Enterprise, Crowdcube and other institutional investors.
iKVA was designed for knowledge-intensive, multinational firms and was developed with input from the BBC, the Home Office and others in a process which has helped to influence its design. The technology is already used by global engineering giant Mott MacDonald.
It supports iKVA’s strategy of collaborating with global consulting firms and multinational companies that are investing in AI and knowledge management tools for their clients and employees.
iKVA emerged from a University of Cambridge research project led by Dr Liang Wang, leading computer scientist Professor Richard Mortier and Professor Jon Crowcroft who is also affiliated with the renowned Alan Turing Institute.
Worldwide revenues for the AI market are forecast to grow 16.4% in 2021 to $327 billion. By 2024, the market is expected to break the $500 billion mark.*
iKVA works by pulling together unstructured data from multiple internal and external sources including rich documents, images, video and chat, to provide accurate knowledge to the user in real time as part of their regular workflow.
It is particularly suited to multinational firms in which staff work across multiple locations and platforms, often in different languages. In these multinational firms it is often challenging to share knowledge internally.
The CEO of iKVA is Cambridge-based Jon Horden who has more than 20 years of experience of the digital industry. He has previously held senior roles at Monster.com, British Gas’s digital division ‘Local Heroes’ and HomeServe.
He is joined on the management team by the co-founders, Dr Chris Doran and experienced tech product specialist Ian Firth.