Cisco Investments, the global corporate venture investment arm of Cisco launched a $1B AI investment fund to bolster the startup ecosystem and expand the development of secure and reliable AI solutions. As part of the new AI fund, Cisco is making strategic investments in Cohere, Mistral AI and Scale AI among others. Cisco has already committed nearly $200M of the $1B investment fund to date.

Over the past several years, Cisco has made over 20 AI-focused acquisitions and investments, furthering GenAI and Machine Learning capabilities and integration of AI across the Cisco portfolio. In addition to these investments, Cisco will also be working with AI companies on product collaborations that allow Cisco to co-innovate, while also being an agnostic provider and platform player in AI, offering options and coverage for Cisco’s global customer base.

The committed investments in the new AI fund include:

• Cohere: Headquartered in Toronto and San Francisco, Cohere provides security-focused frontier large language models (LLMs) and industry-leading Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) capabilities tailored to meet the needs of enterprises.
• Mistral AI: Mistral AI is a global company headquartered in Paris specializing in generative artificial intelligence. The company develops new models of generative artificial intelligence for businesses, combining scientific excellence, an open approach and a responsible vision of technology.
• Scale AI: Based in the U.S., Scale AI provides a data-centric, end-to-end platform providing training and validation for AI applications. Cisco recently participated in Scale AI’s Series F funding as the round’s largest strategic investor.

“The establishment of our $1 billion AI investment fund is a testament to our commitment to the transformative power of artificial intelligence and its potential to redefine industries globally,” said Derek Idemoto, SVP, Corporate Development and Cisco Investments. “This fund represents our unwavering commitment to AI and innovation, and to the entrepreneurs and visionaries who are defining the next wave of technology.”

The post Cisco launches $1 bn global AI investment fund; backs Cohere, Mistral AI & Scale AI appeared first on CIO Dimension.

Wipro today announced that it will be making a $1 billion investment in advancing AI capabilities over the next three years. As the first step, the company launched Wipro ai360, a comprehensive, AI-first innovation ecosystem aimed at integrating AI into all of its platforms, tools, and solutions used internally and offered to its clients. 

With responsible AI at its core, Wipro ai360 will bring together the 30,000 Wipro experts in data analytics and AI (ecosystem partners) with Wipro’s technology and advisory ecosystem from four global business lines. 

Capabilities across cloud and partnerships; data, analytics and AI; design and consulting; cybersecurity; as well as engineering  will be leveraged to develop new solutions and embed AI into all processes and practices.

“Artificial Intelligence is a fast-moving field,” said Thierry Delaporte, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Wipro Limited. “Especially with the emergence of generative AI, we expect a fundamental shift up ahead, for all industries. New business models, new ways of working, and new challenges, too. This is exactly why Wipro’s ai360 ecosystem places responsible AI operations at the heart of all our AI work. It’s meant to empower our talent pool and be ubiquitous across all our operations and processes, as well as our solutioning for clients. We are ready for the AI-driven future!”

Wipro’s innovation hub Lab45 will be a core part of the Wipro ai360 ecosystem, providing clients with the talent, training, scale, as well as the research and co-innovation capabilities needed to accelerate AI adoption.

The $1 billion investment will help further advance Wipro’s AI, data and analytics capabilities and foundation, R&D and platforms, enhance FullStride Cloud, and build new consulting capabilities to help clients adapt to change and unlock new value through AI.

Wipro will also accelerate investments in cutting-edge startups through Wipro Ventures. Additionally, the company will launch a GenAI Seed Accelerator program, which will provide select GenAI-focused startups with the training needed to become enterprise-ready.

In achieving these goals, the company will train all 250,000 employees on AI fundamentals and responsible use of AI over the course of the next 12 months and will continue to provide more customized, ongoing training for employees in AI-specialized roles.

Wipro will develop a curriculum that maps out the complete AI journey for different roles. The completion of the curriculum will culminate in the credentialing of employees through the Decentralized Identity & Credential Exchange (DICE) ID platform. Wipro will also run hackathons and challenges on its talent crowd platform, Topcoder, for continuous upskilling of employees.

The post Wipro announces $1 Bn investment in AI, unveils AI-first innovation ecosystem ai360  appeared first on CIO Dimension.

KaarTech, a global IT consulting company specialising in SAP and S/4 HANA implementation, has raised $30M from A91 Partners, a Mumbai-based investment firm. Gautam Mago and Kaushik Anand from A91 Partners will join the Board of KaarTech.

The investment, according to the company, aims to fuel its organic and inorganic growth across existing markets in the Middle East, the European Union and North America. 

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Chennai, KaarTech specialises in IP & Digital Services in the SAP ecosystem with expertise in discrete manufacturing, professional services automation, process manufacturing and consumer packaged goods. With a team of over 2000 employees, KaarTech has doubled its revenue in the last 24 months.

“The partnership with A91 will catapult KaarTech into an unprecedented era of expansion, propelling us towards our aspiration of going public, despite our humble bootstrapped origins. This association will bolster our ability to expand geographically and augment our services portfolio in-organically. In doing so, we aspire to be the partner of choice for customers looking for Digital Transformation journeys in SAP, Cloud ecosystem customer experience, Process Automation and Data Analytics blended with KaarTech’s core competence in Logistics, Supply Chain, Financial and Human Capital Management,” said Maran Nagarajan, CEO of KaarTech.

It is not often that we get to have a sense of accomplishment in the journey of entrepreneurship. One of those exceptional days when we experienced a sense of attainment was when A91 Partners infused $30 Million in Kaar Tech breaking the 15 year streak of bootstrapped journey – Nagarajan wrote in his Linkedin Post.

KaarTech was started by four college friends from Tamil Nadu. The company currently has operations in over 15 global locations and has executed over 2500 projects.

The post After bootstrapping for 17 years, Chennai’s KaarTech raises $30M   appeared first on CIO Dimension.

Accenture has announced a $3 billion investment over three years in its Data & AI practice, which it says will help clients across all industries rapidly and responsibly advance and use AI to achieve greater growth, efficiency and resilience.

“There is unprecedented interest in all areas of AI, and the substantial investment we are making in our Data & AI practice will help our clients move from interest to action to value, and in a responsible way with clear business cases,” said Julie Sweet, chair and CEO, Accenture.

“Companies that build a strong foundation of AI by adopting and scaling it now, where the technology is mature and delivers clear value, will be better positioned to reinvent, compete and achieve new levels of performance. Our clients have complex environments, and at a time when the technology is changing rapidly, our deep understanding of ecosystem solutions allows us to help them navigate quickly and cost effectively to make smart decisions.”

Today’s announcement includes a range of investments that Accenture is making to help companies develop the new strategies, operating models, business cases and digital core architecture they will need to capitalize on AI innovation:
 

• Accenture will invest in assets, industry solutions, ventures, acquisitions, talent and ecosystem partnerships, which will deepen and develop new skills and capabilities across diagnostic, predictive and generative AI. 
• The Data & AI practice will double its AI talent to 80,000 professionals through a mix of hiring, acquisitions and training.
• The new AI Navigator for Enterprise is a generative AI-based platform that will help clients define business cases, make decisions, navigate AI journeys, choose architectures and understand algorithms and models to drive value responsibly. Building on Accenture’s own efforts, the platform will include assets designed to accelerate responsible AI practices and compliance programs.
• Accenture will create accelerators for data and AI readiness across 19 distinct industries as well as pre-built industry and functional models that take advantage of new generative AI capabilities.
• To advance uses of generative AI, its Center for Advanced AI is dedicated to maximizing the value of this technology across clients and within Accenture. This includes extensive R&D and investments to reimagine service delivery using generative and other emerging AI capabilities.
• Accenture will invest in new and existing relationships across its industry-leading cloud, data and AI ecosystems to reinvent the type of work being delivered to clients. For example, developers using pre-built models to enhance prototyping or creators building dynamic virtual environments that can adapt with real-world changes.

“Over the next decade, AI will be a mega-trend, transforming industries, companies, and the way we live and work, as generative AI transforms 40% of all working hours,” said Paul Daugherty, group chief executive, Accenture Technology. “Our expanded Data & AI practice brings together the full power and breadth of Accenture in creating industry-specific solutions that will help our clients harness AI’s full potential to reshape their strategy, technology, and ways of working, driving innovation and value responsibly and faster than ever before.”
 

The post Accenture announces a massive $3 billion investment in AI  appeared first on CIO Dimension.