NVIDIA-BACKED Sakana AI was valued at US$1.5 billion a little over a year after its launch, boosted by investments from some of Japan’s biggest banks and companies, a source said.
Founded in July 2023 by former Google researchers, Sakana has received an outsized welcome in Japan, which is eager to catch up to the US and China in artificial intelligence (AI).
It has won processing time on one of the country’s supercomputers and quickly recruited partners to build out the AI ecosystem in Japan.
The 20-person startup said on Tuesday (Sep 17) it raised about 30 billion yen (S$276 million) in a Series A funding round.
Financial institutions including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mizuho Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and Nomura Holdings invested. Companies such as NEC, Itochu, KDDI and Fujitsu also participated.
Sakana AI had previously said it was in line to raise more than US$100 million, with investments from backers such as Nvidia, New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures and Lux Capital.
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“We will accelerate our collaboration with our strategic partners, and together, we will confront the pressing issues and challenges facing Japanese industry and society,” said co-founder David Ha.
“While AI alone will certainly not solve all of Japan’s problems, we believe AI can help,” Ha added.
Sakana’s focus on a large number of small models that work together, rather than on one large foundational model, is attracting investor interest in resource-poor Japan.
The island nation, which relies almost wholly on imported energy, has been exploring more power-efficient ways to catch up in AI.
The Tokyo-based company was founded by Ha, who helped set up the Google Brain research team in Tokyo.
Other founders include Llion Jones, co-author of the often-cited Attention Is All You Need research paper in machine learning – which helped launch the current AI wave – and former Japanese diplomat Ren Ito, who headed online thrift shop Mercari’s push into Europe.
Ha previously managed Goldman Sachs’ Japanese fixed-income trading business, adding that the experience provided him with an “incredible education of how the Japanese economic system actually worked”.
“I’m excited to bring my expertise from various parts of my career to build the best team that can help accelerate Japan with AI technology,” Ha added. BLOOMBERG
