A couple of months ago, Microsoft’s venture capital arm announced Innovate.AI, a global startup competition to find the best startups currently working on artificial intelligence. The call for applications closed on December 31, and Microsoft finally revealed the lisf of finalists for each region last week.
“While we received applications across hundreds of problem areas, a few consistent themes and focus areas emerged across regions,” explained Nagraj Kashyap, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Ventures. Most finalists are building AI projects that revolve around healthcare, financial services, human resources, sales and retail. Here are a couple of highlights below:
- In North America, Envisagencis, Inc. is using AI to unlock cures for hundreds of diseases caused by RNA splicing.
- In Europe, Connecterra is building an artificial intelligence that will grow food sustainably to feed future generations.
- Among the numerous Isreali finalists, TheWhollySee is educating the artificial brains that drive autonomous cars.
You can check the full list of North American, European and Isreali finalists on Microsoft Ventures’ website, and the company plans to announce winners for each region later this spring. Overall, Microsoft Ventures and its partners will award $3.5 million in venture funding and $2 million in Azure credits to prize winners.
