As the leader in data for the AI lifecycle, Appen is investing in emerging training data sources.
Sydney – 8 March 2022 – Appen Limited (ASX:APX), the global leader in data for the AI Lifecycle, announced the minority investment in Mindtech, a synthetic data company specializing in the creation of high-quality training data for AI computer vision models. Appen is joining a round including other financial investors and will invest GBP2.0M in exchange for a minority equity stake in Mindtech. As part of the investment, Appen has formed a commercial partnership agreement with Mindtech.
Mindtech is the creator of Chameleon, a self-serve platform that enables customers to create and curate vast computer vision synthetic data assets used to build accurate neural networks. Mindtech’s customers include leading retailers and consumer electronics companies.
“Mindtech has created a scalable platform for the generation of large volumes of synthetic training data. The partnership between Appen and Mindtech will provide customers with the ability to curate a combination of real-world and synthetic data across a wide variety of use cases,” shares Appen CEO Mark Brayan.
Synthetic data is an emerging component of the training data market that is used to augment real-world data. It is particularly useful for the creation of edge-case data that is difficult to capture. The synthetic data market segment is forecast to grow to $1.15B by 2027, representing 48% CAGR .
“We’re excited about this strategic partnership with Appen,’ shared Steve Harris, CEO at Mindtech. “It’s going to enable more customers to rapidly train their AI systems with high-quality, precisely annotated synthetic data while complementing Appen’s existing products of real-world data collection, management, and annotation. By working in partnership, we’ll accelerate the development of AI systems that better understand how humans interact with each other and the world around them.”
The investment is a continuation of Appen’s strategy to deploy capital into product-led businesses that generate new and emerging sources of training data to support AI lifecycles.
In addition to the investment in and partnership with Mindtech, Appen released their full-year earnings results on 24 February. Revenue grew to $447M, cementing Appen’s position as the market leader.
About Appen
Appen is the global leader in data for the AI Lifecycle. With over 25 years of experience in data sourcing, data annotation, and model evaluation by humans, we enable organizations to launch the world’s most innovative artificial intelligence systems. Our expertise includes a global crowd of over 1 million skilled contractors who speak over 235 languages, in over 70,000 locations and 170 countries, and the industry’s most advanced AI-assisted data annotation platform. Our products and services give leaders in technology, automotive, financial services, retail, healthcare, and governments the confidence to launch world-class AI products. Founded in 1996, Appen has customers and offices globally.
About Mindtech
Mindtech Global is the developer of the world’s leading end-to-end synthetic data creation platform for the training of AI vision systems. The company’s Chameleon platform is a step change in the way AI vision systems are trained, helping computers understand and predict human interactions in applications ranging across retail, smart home, healthcare and smart city.
Mindtech is headquartered in the UK, with operations across the US and Asia and is funded by investors including Mercia, Deeptech Labs and In-Q-Tel.