Articul8, an enterprise AI company spun out of Intel in early 2024, has raised more than half of its planned $70 million Series B funding round at a $500 million pre-money valuation, according to CEO Arun K. Subramaniyan. The funding, structured in two tranches, is led by Spain’s Adara Ventures, with the first installment already closed. Subramaniyan declined to disclose the exact amount of the initial tranche but said the full round is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024. This latest valuation represents a fivefold increase from Articul8’s $100 million post-money valuation following its Series A in January 2024. Since then, the Santa Clara-based company has secured over $90 million in total contract value from 29 paying customers, including Hitachi Energy, AWS, Franklin Templeton, and Intel itself. Subramaniyan emphasized that the company is not under financial pressure to raise capital, noting it is already revenue-positive thanks to a series of large enterprise deals. He projected annual recurring revenue of just over $57 million by year-end, with roughly 45% to 50% of that already recognized. Articul8 specializes in building AI systems designed to operate within customers’ own IT environments, avoiding reliance on general-purpose, cloud-based models. Instead of selling standalone AI models, the company delivers customized software applications and AI agents tailored to specific business functions. Its focus is on highly regulated industries such as energy, manufacturing, aerospace, financial services, and semiconductors—sectors where data privacy, accuracy, and auditability are paramount. “Our competition is pretty much everybody,” Subramaniyan said. “But today, the major competitors are the cloud service providers, because they’ve realized their general-purpose models have become commodities.” He explained that customers increasingly seek predictable, explainable AI outcomes with clear audit trails—capabilities that are harder to achieve with off-the-shelf models hosted on shared platforms. The Series B proceeds will primarily fund research and product development, as well as international expansion, with a focus on Europe and parts of Asia. Adara Ventures’ involvement is expected to accelerate growth in Europe, supported by the European Investment Fund’s backing of the Madrid-based venture firm. Articul8 is also targeting markets like Japan and South Korea, where it has already begun working with major enterprise clients. India’s Aditya Birla Ventures also participated in the round. The company collaborates with tech giants including Nvidia and Google Cloud, and works with Amazon Web Services both as a customer and a strategic partner on select deployments. Articul8 employs 75 people, with about 80% dedicated to research and development. Teams are based in the U.S., Brazil, and India.