Ikigai Labs Raises $25M to Bring Generative AI for Tabular Data

SAN FRANCISCOAug. 24, 2023 — Ikigai Labs, a company focused on generative AI for tabular data, today announced $25M of new capital by Premji Invest with participation from Foundation Capital and e& capital. The capital will further Ikigai Lab’s for the way enterprises harness AI. Organizations can be trained to master AI leveraging the Ikigai Academy and using the Ikigai platform that is easy, fast and powerful by design.

Organizations are awash in data that is sitting in spreadsheets, databases, and cloud datastores, but making use of this tabular data brings a host of challenges that makes it difficult to build, maintain and mitigate risks with limited skilled resources. To effectively forecast and conduct scenario-based planning requires harnessing deep, complex data sources from disparate areas across the enterprise. Ikigai Labs solves these challenges by pairing its best-in-class time series forecasting with its no-code AI platform built on top of its three proprietary foundation blocks – aiMatch, for data reconciliation, aiCast, for prediction and aiPlan, for scenario planning and optimization – together with expert-in-the-loop (EiTL), an innovative addition for reinforcement learning. Along with this easy, fast and powerful platform, Ikigai Academy has already trained over 6000 students from 90+ countries on topics like “No Code AI” and “Time Series Forecasting”.

“I see the challenges that individuals face in understanding what can be done with their tabular data, together with the struggle for enterprises to leverage the latest technological innovations in AI,” said Devavrat Shah, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Ikigai Labs and Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Chair Professor of AI and Decisions at MIT. “With Ikigai, we see a clear opportunity to help the global workforce harness the power of AI. We are excited to work with Premji Invest, Foundation Capital, e& capital and luminaries like Diane Greene, who are enabling us to make Generative AI for tabular data truly effective across enterprises.”

“Ikigai’s founding team possesses a depth of industry and go-to-market expertise that can push the AI frontier to the center of business operations and decisions. Their innovation with large graphical models will be embraced by all enterprises that look to apply generative AI to drive meaningful business insights,” said Sandesh Patnam, Managing Partner, Premji Invest. “Premji Invest is focused on investing in innovative companies with exceptional growth potential and creating enduring value. In Ikigai, we see a company that brings all of this to bear while creating a N of 1, category defining company!”

“Ikigai is led by industry experts who uniquely possess a combination of enterprise expertise and deep research in the field of AI. Ikigai’s potential to help scale enterprises with AI by solving data engineering and modeling problems for the business user is truly unique,” said Ashu Garg, General Partner, Foundation Capital. “Ikigai’s ability to simultaneously solve several challenges with time series – missing data, forecasting with accuracy, learning from multiple time-series in presence of continual change – really positions them as a premier option for enterprise clients. We are excited about the early adoption Ikigai has established within enterprises, and their potential impact across all industries.”