OctoML activates $15m series A

OctoML, a US-based machine learning development tool developer spun out of University of Washington (UW), has attracted $15m of series A funding led by venture firm Amplify Partners and including the latter’s peer Madrona Venture Group, GeekWire reported on Friday.
OctoML provides software tools that make it easier for clients to implement and optimise machine learning.  The software caters to edge devices such as sensors and medical apparatus, often built to bespoke technical standards and with limited access to cloud services typically used to execute machine learning.
OctoML’s software grew from an open-source technology called Apache TVM conceived by researchers including Luis Ceze, a professor at UW’s Paul Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering. Ceze now acts as OctoML’s chief executive and is also a venture partner at Madrona Venture Group.
OctoML is currently piloting a software-as-a-service called Octimiser where clients can automate optimisation of machine learning across different hardware specifications. It expects the fresh capital to fund additions to its 20-person team.
OctoML spun out of UW in July 2019, three months before a $3.9m seed round led by Madrona Venture Group and backed by Amplify Partners.
Ceze told TechCrunch: “A machine learning model is not code, it does not have instructions, it has numbers that describe its statistical modelling.
“There is quite a few challenges in making it run efficiently on a given hardware platform because there is literally billions and billions of ways in which you can map a model to specific hardware targets. Picking the right one that performs well is a significant task that typically requires human intuition.”