Mycroft AI inks $1.75M in oversubscribed round, battling Amazon, Google
January 12, 2018 | Bobby Burch
In a quiet room amid the chaos of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Mycroft AI CEO Josh Montgomery gleefully told Startland News Friday that his tech firm raised a significant seed round.
Mycroft recently raised a $1.75 million round that will help the Kansas City-based artificial intelligence startup accelerate hiring plans and corporate partnerships. The seed round exceeded the firm’s goal by more than $1 million, Montgomery said.
“It’s fantastic — it shows we’re in an exciting space and positions the company for huge success,” Montgomery said. “It’s exciting to be growing a company in Kansas City.”
Mycroft created an open-source voice assistant similar to Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana or Amazon’s Alexa. The firm’s Mark I device — which raised $335,000 in a Kickstarter campaign — uses natural language processing technology to enable its everyday use in a consumer’s home.
A 2016 Sprint Accelerator grad, Mycroft AI will be deploying a smart speaker — the Mark II — via a Kickstarter campaign Jan. 25.
Among those joining in the seed round were the Missouri Technology Corporation, Kansas City-based Northland Angels, Deep Space Ventures, TechNexus and Social Starts, Montgomery said. The local support is meaningful to Mycroft, Montgomery said.
“It shows Kansas City has an up-and-coming startup scene,” Montgomery said. “There’s funding available for good ideas with solid execution.”
With an open-source, open-hardware approach, Mycroft allows users across the globe to develop software and hardware add-ons. Already working with Jaguar Land Rover, Mycroft aims to be a neutral integration for other corporations that view Google or Amazon as competition.
“Lots of companies want to deploy voice assistants but aren’t excited about sending their data to big tech,” Montgomery said. “This positions us for success with corporate engagements.”
Mycroft AI hopes to hire up to 40 staffers in 2018 to build out its software and business development teams, Montgomery said.
Mycroft AI was named a Startland Top Startup to Watch in 2017. To watch Montgomery in a full video interview with Techcrunch, check out the video below.
Featured Business
2018 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Kansas program aims to create startups with public-private partnerships
A new Kansas program is tapping universities to incentivize residents to launch more startups through public-private partnerships. The Kansas Department of Commerce recently kicked off “JumpStart Kansas Entrepreneurs” in the hopes that it will spur economic growth in the Sunflower State via early-stage firms. “The program is designed to stimulate and grow the economy from…
Humanizing text analysis, Stride marches to international growth
Computers can do a lot these days, but they can’t process feelings. After all, that’s what sets humans apart from machine — right? Not necessarily it seems, as one Kansas-City based artificial intelligence firm is challenging that notion with its text-analyzing tech that not only identifies subjects but also a writer’s sentiment. A graduate of…
Idle Smart earns $125K in national clean energy program
Idle Smart recently was dubbed a top clean-energy firm and won some substantial investment capital for its technology. Based in Kansas City, Kan., the company was voted by its peers as the top firm in the Energy: US 2016 program, nabbing $125,000 for its smart thermostat device for fleet vehicles, such as semi-trucks. The company’s…
With KC startup Edcoda, students learn as wizard saviors
Across the U.S., student engagement is declining. By the time students reach high school, 2 out of 3 them will become disengaged, according to Gallup’s 2015 figures. But one Kansas City-based startup is working to change that by making fun a top priority. Edtech startup Edcoda created the 3D, online role-playing game Coda Quest, which…