Cloudian has announced the creation of EDGEMATRIX, a majority-owned subsidiary led by Hiroshi Ohta, Cloudian co-founder.
The new company will provide solutions for Artificial Intelligence (AI) processing of large-scale data sets at the edge, building on the innovation and momentum Cloudian has demonstrated in the Japanese AI market.
EDGEMATRIX has raised $9 million in Series A funding from strategic investors NTT DOCOMO, SHIMIZU CORPORATION and Japan Post Capital Co as well as Cloudian CEO and co-founder Michael Tso and Cloudian board director Jonathan Epstein.
The new company will leverage Cloudian’s HyperStore platform for managing large-scale data sets, data analytics and machine learning use cases.
EDGEMATRIX will initially focus on the Japanese market, where both the government and private sector view AI as essential to boosting productivity.
Cloudian said that building on it’s expertise in software-defined solutions for managing large data sets, over the past two years Ohta and a small Cloudian team created a number of innovative AI software solutions and a low-cost, ruggedised device for AI applications processing and data collection at the edge. By applying analytics near where data is created (e.g., where sensors are located), the edge device enables real-time data analysis and decision-making while minimising the transmission costs and latencies of public clouds.
These AI solutions have been deployed by a number of large companies and organisations for various use cases, including:
Targeted advertising – video analysis of the make, model and year of cars on a highway to display targeted ads on a nearby billboard.
Manufacturing quality inspection – identification and removal of products that failed to get wrapped in an automated assembly line process.
Traffic congestion measurement – counting of cars on a road as a basis for changing turn lanes to improve traffic flow.
“In just a short time, we have built a compelling product, an initial base of top-tier customers and a range of strategic partnerships,” said Ohta. “We will leverage these strengths, the new funding, and the collaboration with our strategic investors to bring the benefits of our solution to more enterprises, helping them derive greater value from their digital assets.”
