November 1, 2021

Singapore-based AI startup, Sentient.io, has secured Real Tech Fund to invest in its Series B1 funding round. Real Tech Fund is managed by Real Tech Holdings Co., Ltd out of Japan. Its investment in Sentient.io is the Fund’s third invested company. Sentient.io is also backed by A*ccelerate Technologies, the commercialising and venture arm of Singapore’s leading Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), global technology venture capital team from BEENEXT and several Japanese companies such as, Digital Garage Group together with ABC Dream Ventures, which is a corporate venture capital firm of Asahi Broadcasting Group Holdings Corporation. To date, the company has raised more than US$6 million in investment since its inception in May 2017.

Sentient.io has built a unique AI and Data platform of over 60 AI functions that software developers can “assemble like Lego blocks.” This will empower software developers to pick from its pre-trained AI microservices that can help them to create smart applications that are powered by AI and for big data owners like government and multinational companies to generate new values from their data assets. 

The new fundraising is used for scaling the platform and business into Asia-Pacific markets, especially to fulfil the surging demand for Digital Transformation from Japanese corporations.

Christopher Yeo, founder and CEO of Sentient.io, said: “We are pleased to welcome Real Tech Fund in our Series B1 funding round. Real Tech Holdings understands that building AI applications require a high level of expertise and a long period to master the technology. We believe that our collaboration with them will accelerate innovative solutions and bring these to the market at a quicker pace. This will also help to fulfil our vision of benefiting humanity with augmented intelligence.”

The size of the AI market for voice and image recognition is expected to reach US$98.8 billion by 2025. Despite this expected growth in AI demand, the challenges for companies to adopt AI include the lack of AI knowledge and building capabilities, the lack of algorithms that can be applied to the user’s industry domain, or the high cost of implementing AI solutions.

Daiki Kumamoto, Global Fund Leader and Growth Manager of Real Tech Holdings Co., Ltd. said: “Sentient.io has developed an easy to use platform and UI/UX that allows pre-trained microservices to be integrated into business applications via Application Programming Interface (API), and is particularly popular in Southeast Asia. One particular popular technology has algorithms that can process and hone in on voice activities from training data in order to recognise the unique English “accent” of Southeast Asia countries such as ‘Singlish” in Singapore. As a strategic partner and investor, we will support Sentient i.o’s entry into the Japanese market and will continue to accelerate collaboration with Japanese companies”.