Cortica

Headquartered in Tel Aviv[1] with R&D and executive offices in Israel and New York City,[2] Cortica utilizes unsupervised learning methods to recognize and analyze digital images and video.[3][4] The technology developed by the Cortica team is based on research of the function of the human brain.[5][6]

Cortica In Every Image

Company Founding

Cortica was founded in 2007 by Igal Raichelgauz, Karina Odinaev and Yehoshua Zeevi.[7] Together, the founders developed the company’s core technology while at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. By combining discoveries in neuroscience with developments in computer programming, the team created technology that possesses the ability to interpret large amounts of visual data with increased accuracy.[8] This technology, called Image2Text, is based on the founders’ work in digitally replicating cortical neural networks’ ability to identify complex patterns within massive quantities of ambiguous and noisy data.[9]

Cortica’s offerings have application in the automotive industry[10], media industries[11], as well as the smart city and medical industries[12]. Industry experts suggest that the self-driving automotive industry alone will be worth upwards of $7 trillion[13] while each connected car is expected to generate 4,000 GB of data per day[14]. Beyond that, industry analysts expect the proliferation of surveillance cameras to continue leading to an expected 2,500 Petabytes of data being generated daily by new surveillance cameras[15]. Cortica operates in these high scale industries[16].

The company currently employs professionals from many domains including AI researchers as well as veterans of intelligence units within the Israeli Defense Forces[17].

Research and Technology

In 2006, Founders Raichelgauz, Odinaev, and Zeevi shared their findings with the 28th IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference in New York in a paper titled, “Natural Signal Classification by Neural Cliques and Phase-Locked Attractors”.[18]

That same year, the team also published “Cliques in Neural Ensembles as Perception Carriers"[19]

CB Insights recently identified Cortica as the number one patent holder among AI companies[20].

Cortica is researching to develop a machine-learning driving system which can identify objects and pedestrians. Connecting to it, Elon Musk has been rumored to partner with Cortica for his electric car company, Tesla[21]. However, Tesla denies it stating that Musk did not discuss a collaboration with artificial intelligence firm Cortica.[22]

Funding

Cortica raised $7 million in its Series A funding round, announced in August 2012. Investors included Horizons Ventures (the investment firm of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing), and Ynon Kreiz, the former chairman and CEO of the Endemol Group.[23][24]

In May 2013, it was announced that Cortica had raised $1.5 million from Russian firm Mail.ru Group.[25][26] It later transpired that this was a part of Cortica's Series B funding round for $6.4 million, announced in June 2013. The round was led by Horizons Ventures, with participation from the Russian firm Mail.ru Group and other angel investors.[27][28] In its fourth funding round, Cortica has raised $20 million, bringing the total investments to $38 million.[29] According to a report from The Israeli lead Daily economic newspaper, TheMarker, the fourth round was led by a strategic Chinese investor who will probably help the company expand into the Asian market.[30]

A fifth investment round was closed in December, 2016 for an additional $30 million from undisclosed investors[31].

Media coverage

GigaOm listed Cortica as one of the top deep learning startups in a November 2013 article surveying the field, along with AlchemyAPI, Ersatz, and Semantria.[32]

Business Insider ranked Cortica as one of the coolest tech companies in Israel[33].

CB Insights has identified Cortica as the top patent holding AI company[34].

In 2017 several leading automotive media outlets covered the launch of Cortica's automotive business unit [35][36][37][38][39]

References
  1. Grant, Rebecca (2012-08-02). "Cortica gets $7M to endow computers with the power of sight". VentureBeat. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  2. "CrunchBase". CrunchBase. TechCrunch. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  3. Ha, Anthony. "In-Image Ad Startup Cortica Raises $7M From Li Ka-Shing's Horizons Ventures And Ynon Kreiz". TechCrunch. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  4. Ha, Anthony. "Cortica Raises $6.4M To Improve Visual Search And In-Image Ads". TechCrunch. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  5. Grant, Rebecca (2012-08-02). "Cortica gets $7M to endow computers with the power of sight". VentureBeat. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  6. "An Israeli AI Company Is Giving Machines The Gift Of Sight". Futurism. 2017-06-05. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  7. "CrunchBase". CrunchBase. TechCrunch. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  8. "Power Pitch: Cortica". CNBC.com. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  9. Odinaev, Karina; Raichelgauz, Igal; Zeevi, Yehoshua Y. (2006). Applications of Soft Computing. Advances in Intelligent and Soft Computing. 36. pp. 123–131. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-36266-1_12. ISBN 978-3-540-29123-7.
  10. Hall-Geisler, Kristen. "Cortica teaches autonomous vehicles with unsupervised learning | TechCrunch". Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  11. Harris, Derrick (November 2013). "The Gigaom guide to deep learning: Who's doing it, and why it matters". GigaOm. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  12. "An Israeli AI Company Is Giving Machines The Gift Of Sight". Futurism. 2017-06-05. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  13. Korosec, Kirsten (2017-06-01). "Intel predicts a $7 trillion self-driving future". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  14. Nelson, Patrick. "One autonomous car will use 4,000 GB of data per day". Network World. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  15. "Big, big, big data: higher and higher resolution video surveillance - IHS Technology". technology.ihs.com. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  16. "An Israeli AI Company Is Giving Machines The Gift Of Sight". Futurism. 2017-06-05. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  17. Meek, Andy (2017-06-30). "Interview: Meet the exciting AI company helping machines 'see' like humans". BGR. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  18. Raichelgauz, Igal. "Natural Signal Classification by Neural Cliques and Phase-Locked Attractors" (PDF). technion.ac.il. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  19. Odinaev, K; Raichelgauz, I; Zeevi, YY (2006). "Cliques in Neural Ensembles as Perception Carriers". The 2006 IEEE International Joint Conference on Neural Network Proceedings. IEEE. pp. 285–292. doi:10.1109/IJCNN.2006.246693. ISBN 978-0-7803-9490-2.
  20. "Cortica, Numenta Hold Top Patents In Artificial Intelligence". CB Insights Research. 2017-04-27. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  21. "Billionaire Elon Musk visits Israel to scour tech, party in Jerusalem, hike Masada". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2018-03-21.
  22. "Tesla denies Musk in talks with Israeli AI vision firm Cortica". Reuters. 2018-03-20. Retrieved 2018-03-21.
  23. Ha, Anthony (August 2, 2012). "In-Image Ad Startup Cortica Raises $7M From Li Ka-Shing's Horizons Ventures And Ynon Kreiz". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  24. Grant, Rebecca (August 2, 2012). "Cortica gets $7M to endow computers with the power of sight". VentureBeat. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  25. Ludwig, Sean (May 28, 2013). "Image recognition startup Cortica nabs $1.5M from Russian tech leader Mail.Ru". VentureBeat. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  26. Yeung, Ken (May 28, 2013). "Israel-based Cortica raises $1.5M from Mail.Ru to fund its Image2Text visual search technology". The Next Web. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  27. "Cortica Raises $6.4M To Improve Visual Search And In-Image Ads". TechCrunch. June 19, 2013. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  28. Koetsier, John (June 19, 2013). "FABulous funding Wednesday: From gay social network to billion-dollar design store". VentureBeat. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  29. Henn, Idan (March 10, 2014). "Cortica raises $20M in fourth round funding". geektime. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  30. Hirschauge, Orr (March 11, 2014). "Cortica raises $20m from Chinese investors". Haaretz. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  31. "Dec 1, 2016: Cortica - Funding Round - Series C | crunchbase". www.crunchbase.com. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  32. Harris, Derrick (November 1, 2013). "The Gigaom guide to deep learning: Who's doing it, and why it matters". GigaOm. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  33. "The 25 coolest tech companies in Israel". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  34. "Cortica, Numenta Hold Top Patents In Artificial Intelligence". CB Insights Research. 2017-04-27. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  35. "How Cortica is Teaching Autonomous Vehicles [VIDEO] | Auto Finance News". www.autofinancenews.net. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  36. "Brain research offers fast track for AI tech - Automotive World". www.automotiveworld.com. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  37. CNBC.com, Ferry Biedermann, special to (2017-07-20). "10 Israeli start-ups that are gunning for the self-driving car market". Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  38. Editor, CRM. "The Autonomous Report: How self-driving cars see the world". www.collisionrepairmag.com. Retrieved 2017-09-07.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  39. Edelstein, Stephen. "Cortica Will Apply 'Unsupervised Learning' AI Tech to Help Self-Driving Cars Get Smarter". The Drive. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
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