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AI Infrastructure Startup Cerebrium Secures $8.5 Million Seed Funding Led by Gradient Ventures

2 days ago

Cerebrium, an AI infrastructure platform, has secured an $8.5 million seed round led by Gradient Ventures, with additional participation from Y Combinator and Authentic Ventures. The company, co-founded in Cape Town by CEO Michael Louis and CTO Jonathan Irwin, is now headquartered in New York. Cerebrium provides the essential building blocks for engineering teams to develop and scale multimodal AI applications, which can process a variety of data types, including text, images, and audio. The platform primarily serves three key sectors: Voice AI, real-time digital avatars, and healthcare. By offering scalable, serverless CPU and GPU infrastructure, Cerebrium allows engineers to focus on their core product and workflows while efficiently handling the computational demands of AI models. This elastic scaling means clients only pay for the compute resources they use, significantly reducing costs for volatile workloads. Louis, who previously founded the e-commerce startup OneCart (acquired by Walmart-owned Massmart in 2021), and Irwin drew inspiration for Cerebrium from the challenges they faced in building machine learning capabilities at OneCart. They have already gained traction with clients such as Tavus, Deepgram, and Vapi, and are generating millions in annual recurring revenue despite having only four engineers on the team. The seed funding will be used to expand the engineering team to meet growing enterprise demand and to develop new features. Gradient Ventures partner Eylul Kayin emphasized the importance of specialized, elastic infrastructure as real-time AI becomes central to customer experiences. Industry experts agree that Cerebrium’s approach could revolutionize how companies manage and deploy AI, making it more accessible and cost-effective. Cerebrium’s unique offering sets it apart in the competitive AI infrastructure market. Its ability to handle complex, multimodal AI tasks while maintaining cost efficiency and scalability positions it as a promising player. The company’s success so far, coupled with the backing of reputable investors, suggests a strong potential for further innovation and market leadership. Industry insiders highlight the growing need for robust AI infrastructure solutions, particularly as businesses increasingly integrate real-time AI into their products and services. The investment from Gradient Ventures, known for its focus on AI and machine learning startups, underscores the platform’s potential and the strategic importance of such infrastructure in the rapidly evolving tech landscape. Cerebrium’s team and technology are poised to address these needs, potentially reshaping the way enterprises approach AI deployment and management.

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