H2O.ai, the AI cloud platform, has announced that it has closed $100 million in Series E funding led by Australia-based bank, customer Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). H2O.ai has now raised over $250 million and is valued at $1.7 billion. Pivot Investment Partners joins prior investors Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Crane Venture Partners. Existing investors include customers and partners such as Wells Fargo, New York Life and NVIDIA.
“H2O.ai is picking winners in every vertical on every continent and making them AI superpowers to take on the tech giants with the H2O AI Cloud. Our innovative maker culture and customer obsession have won the trust and love of our customers and they have led every growth funding round at H2O.ai,” said Sri Ambati, founder and CEO of H2O.ai. “Commonwealth Bank and H2O.ai are led by our core belief that we can make the world better by serving our communities and customers with AI. This strategic partnership between the leading global AI Cloud movement and Australia’s largest bank will unleash the juggernaut of co-innovation and will further democratize AI with trust and freedom. This will be fun.”
Matt Comyn, Commonwealth Bank of Australia CEO, said, “Commonwealth Bank processes and makes decisions based on millions of data points collected every day. AI already has helped us to improve our customer experience, however, we know there is untapped potential to do more. The investment in and strategic partnership with H2O.ai extends our leadership in artificial intelligence and ultimately boosts the bank’s ability to offer leading digital propositions and reimagine products and services to customers.”
Andrew McMullan, PhD, Chief Data and Analytics Officer of CBA, said, “I’ve worked in this field for 25 years and this is the best platform and product I have had the privilege of using in my career so far. We’re committed to improving every one of the 35 million decisions that we deliver to our customers every single day–whether via our app, online banking platform, branches, or Australian call centers. In order to do that we had to find the best solution across the globe. Every single experience we build together with H2O.ai has been significantly better than what it replaces.” Andrew McMullan joins the H2O.ai Board of Directors. H2O.ai and CBA have also entered a strategic partnership to further boost CBA’s AI capabilities, co-create financial services AI applications powered by the H2O AI Cloud and together work on initiatives to improve communities and the planet.
Dinkar Jetley, Co-founder and Partner of Pivot Investment Partners, said, “Pivot Investment Partners were deeply impressed by the top-notch team at H2O.ai, its fast-growing roster of marquee clients and the traction it has achieved with its mission to democratize AI technology. AI has the potential to dramatically transform the financial services and insurance markets, and we are excited to partner the leading AI Cloud company to accelerate this transformation across the industry.”
Arya has been a part of the Content & Research Team at Hrnxt.com. She is a keen observer of economic developments, emerging businesses, people in business and keeps a tab on latest happenings in the business environment.