AI Verse raises 2.5 M€ from Innovacom and Bpifrance

Paris, 18^th October 2021 – AI Verse, a start-up specialized in solutions that enable the widespread use of Deep Learning in the computer vision market, has just completed a €2.5 million round of financing.
This round of financing was led by Innovacom, a pioneer in innovation capital in France, via its Technocom3 fund and Bpifrance, via its Digital Venture fund.

AI Verse develops a software solution focused on automatic generation of synthetic datasets for computer vision applications. These datasets are labelled and optimised for effective training of Deep Learning networks. Thanks to this solution, any Machine Learning engineer can obtain a dataset of several hundred thousand images in mere hours, compared to the weeks or months required using current methods.

The start-up intends to harness its fast, disruptive and inexpensive cloud-based solution to provide widespread access to data, and consequently to Deep Learning techniques. AI Verse caters to all industrial or academic organisations, regardless of size, in need of labelled images to develop Deep Learning-based applications in fields ranging from robotics to home automation and virtual and augmented reality, as well as smart cities and IVAs.

Created in 2020, AI Verse is incubated at INRIA, the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology. Following its financing round, majority ownership of the company will remain in the hands of its employees and co-founders, both international experts in AI, Comptuer Vision and Computer Graphics.
CEO Benoit Morisset is a co-founder and former CEO of Pixmap, a start-up born from the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) and specialised in real-time 3D cartography for Robotics and Virtual and Augmented Reality applications.
Arnauld Lamorlette, CTO of AI Verse, boasts 35 years of international experience in the highest spheres of the Computer Graphics industry. In particular, he co-created and headed The Bakery studio. At Dreamworks Animation, he was the key contributor to the cutting-edge technology “Global Illumination” used in Shrek 2, a project that earned him a 2011 Scientific & Technical Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

“ For more than 30 years, Innovacom has been supporting companies to develop disruptive technologies with the potential to radically transform their industry. AI Verse’s solution reflects this commitment by promoting the generalisation of Deep Learning in the computer vision market and substantially improving network training quality”, explained Vincent Deltrieu, Partner and member of the Innovacom Management Board.

Dedicated to supporting start-ups whose cutting-edge technologies lead the transitions of the economy, Innovacom aims at supporting AI verse’s technological development.

Benoit Morisset, founder and CEO of AI Verse, added, “ After less than two years of existence, we take pride in the progress we have made and the interest our solution is sparking. Innovacom’s support reinforces our ambitions and confirms AI Verse’s prospects in the field of Deep Learning ”.

” Data acquisition and labeling are currently the main obstacles to the development of computer vision applications. AI Verse’s solution revolutionizes the sector by democratizing access to data. Its SaaS solution allows the creation of synthetic datasets perfectly adapted to the training of deep learning models. We are delighted to support the entire team in this new stage of development “,said Bruno Villeneuve, Director of Investments at Bpifrance’s Digital Venture division.

About INNOVACOM
Since 1988, Innovacom has invested close to €1 billion, supported more than 300 digital and high-tech startups, participated in more than 20 IPOs and completed 150 industrial disposals.
Innovacom has contributed to several recent successes in multiple sectors: electric vehicles (G²mobility), ad tech (Videoplazza), medical imaging (Olea Medical), digital customer relations (Dimelo), connectivity in trains (21Net Ltd), materials for the energy transition (Exagan) or components for smartphones with the unicorn Heptagon.
Today, Innovacom supports high-potential companies such as Acklio, Antaïos, Aryballe, Aura Aero, Avicenna.ai, CAILabs, Cozy Cloud, Exotrail, Intersec, Iten, MicroEJ, Matrixx Software, OSO AI, Robart, Upciti and Scintil Photonics.
Its association with the Turenne Group has created one of the leading independent private equity firms in France with a platform of €1.2 billion under management. With offices in Paris and Marseille, Innovacom Gestion is licensed by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers.
www.innovacom.com  // @innovacomvc

About Bpifrance and the Digital Venture fund
Bpifrance’s equity investments are made through Bpifrance Investissement. Bpifrance finances companies – at every stage of their development – with credit, guarantees and equity. Bpifrance supports them in their innovation and international projects. Bpifrance now also provides their export activity through a wide range of products. Consulting, university, networking and acceleration programs for startups, SMEs and ETIs are also part of the offer proposed to entrepreneurs.
Bpifrance Digital Venture is the team in charge of venture investments in innovative technology companies in the digital sector. With €700 million under management, Bpifrance Digital Venture has invested in nearly 90 companies and completed 15 disposals since 2011. The team has invested in Teads (acquired by Altice), Talentsoft, Netatmo (Legrand), Meilleurs Agents (Axel Springer), Balyo, Manomano, Evaneos, Openclassrooms, Cardiologs Technologies, Gitguardian, Strapi, Numworks, among others.
More information on : www.Bpifrance.fr – https://presse.bpifrance.fr/ Follow us on Twitter : @Bpifrance – @BpifrancePresse