Sakana AI, a Tokyo, Japan-based AI research and development company, has raised over $100 million in Series A funding round.
Investors
The round was led by New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures, and Lux Capital, with participation from NVIDIA.
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global investment firm founded in 1977, managing over $25 billion in assets as of December 31, 2023. NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies across all stages, from seed to IPO. The firm has seen over 270 portfolio company IPOs and 450+ mergers and acquisitions.
Khosla Ventures, founded in 2004 and based in Menlo Park, California, is a venture capital firm that provides support to entrepreneurs in AI, sustainability, enterprise, consumer, health, and frontier technologies.
Lux Capital is a venture capital firm investing in emerging science and technology. They partner with visionary inventors who challenge the status quo to bring futuristic ideas to life. Over the past two decades, Lux has expanded from its New York City roots to Silicon Valley, managing over $5 billion in assets under management (AUM).
Sakana AI Use of Funds
With the new funding, Sakana AI plans to invest in top talent and infrastructure and drive the company’s mission to pioneer nature-inspired foundation models and advance AI technologies.
About Sakana AI
Sakana AI is an AI R&D company dedicated to developing new foundational models based on nature-inspired intelligence. The company specializes in AI models capable of generating text, images, video, code, and multimedia. Sakana AI collaborates with industry leaders like NVIDIA to enhance research capabilities, access advanced data center infrastructure, and foster growth within the AI community in Japan.
Funding Details
Company: Sakana AI
Raised: $100.0M
Round: Series A
Funding Date: September 2024
Lead Investors: New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital
Additional Investors: NVIDIA
Company Website: https://sakana.ai/
Software Category: AI Models
Source: https://sakana.ai/series-a/