Vidyard, a popular video messaging company, has recently announced its entry into the virtual digital avatar market and secured new funding of $15M from Export Development Canada (EDC), BMO Capital Partners, and existing investors Battery Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and iNovia Capital. This brings the company’s total funding to $90.7M.

According to Gartner Research, AI avatars using generative AI technology will support 70% of digital and marketing communications by 2025, up from less than 5% in 2022. The AI avatar market is valued at USD 14.34B in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 47.1% from 2023 to 2030. The growth is driven by increased demand for remote collaboration tools, customer preferences for video content in corporate communications,  hybrid work environments, and advancements in video streaming technology.

Jonathan Lister, Chief Operating Officer at Vidyard says “the increasing demand for authentic and personalized characters for online interactions by companies from various industries is opening up a future where AI-powered video communications can become the cornerstone of productive connections between sellers and buyers.”

Vidyard’s advantage over leading AI video and avatar providers, such as Synthesia, HeyGen, and Tavus, is that its products are embedded in a sales workflow, making it easy to create personalized videos and send them to buyers all within the sales ecosystem. Market leaders like Microsoft, Marketo, and Hubspot are already using Vidyard.

Hubspot’s VP of Platform Ecosystem, Scott Brinker, who has been testing Vidyard’s AI Avatar platform, says that “Virtual avatars will address a lot of critical pain points for HubSpot users, including the stage fright associated with traditional video recording, the massive amount of time it takes to get them ‘right,’ the difficulty of finding the right place and time to do it, and the fact that it’s rarely their top priority.”

In a recent customer survey by GTM Partners, Vidyard found that when video was added, sales funnel performance increased by 85%, four to five times more meetings were booked. In addition, two to four times more sales-qualified opportunities were generated. This resulted in a 25% increase in close rates.

According to Gartner, AI’s capability to help sellers engage more effectively with prospects and customers and to do so at scale by automating labor-intensive tasks is one of the most valuable contributions to using AI in sales.  As communications continue to shift in customer preferences, virtual avatars are making it extremely easy for sales and marketers to get messages out highly personalized and improve customer and buyer interactions.

Kelvin Beachum, a National Football Athlete of the Arizona Cardinals, has found Vidyard’s virtual avatar technology useful. He says “AI technology is just beginning to crack the surface of its capabilities. For me, time is money. As an organization, we are always trying to be efficient with our time to accomplish as much as possible at a high level. Using AI for efficiency allows for a high-velocity workflow of my daily operations, and I am excited to continue implementing it.”

Lister says “B2B buying and selling is fundamentally broken. Buyers want timely and relevant information and automation that helps simplify their complex buying journey. While the sellers struggle to build meaningful relationships, communicate with an ever-increasing number of stakeholders, and deliver high-quality insights given the limitations of current sales technology.”

As this market continues to unfold, there is a need to keep a vigilant eye on deep fakes and the increasing risks of video communication. Stanford has released guidelines on digital communication ethics to help mitigate deep fake risks.

Eindhoven-based startup Axelera has raised $68mn as it looks to take its AI chip business global. One of the lead investors is Samsung Catalyst, the venture arm of semiconductor giant Samsung Electronics.  

Axelera is developing chips, known as AI processing units (AIPUs), that enable computer vision and generative AI in devices like robots and drones. The chips facilitate so-called edge AI — when AI models are deployed inside devices, instead of linking to them via the cloud.  

Axelera builds the AIPUs as well as the software that runs them. Dubbed Metis, the startup claims that it is the world’s most powerful AI chip for edge devices.

The AI chips are, in effect, tiny data centres located within the device. By negating the need to upload or download data to a centralised cloud server, the chips speed up data processing. They also minimises energy use. 

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What’s more, Axelera leverages what’s known as in-memory computing. That’s when data is stored in the main memory (RAM) instead of on traditional disk storage. This makes for even faster data processing and retrieval. 

The startup’s chips thus deliver high computing performance at a fraction of the cost and energy consumption of centralised AI processing units, said the startup.   

“To truly harness the value of AI, organisations need a solution that delivers high-performance and efficiency while balancing cost,” said Fabrizio Del Maffeo, co-founder and CEO at Axelera AI. 

Axelera claims it has built the world’s most powerful AI processing unit for edge devices. Credit: Axelera
Democratising AI 

Axelera’s chips make use of the instruction set architecture (ISA) RISC-V. An ISA acts like a bridge between the hardware and the software. It specifies both what the processor is capable of doing as well as how it gets done. 

RISC-V is a low-cost, efficient, and flexible ISA that can be customised to specific use cases. Crucially, unlike most ISAs, it is open source, which means no single entity controls it.

“Our mission is to democratise access to artificial intelligence,” said Del Maffeo. 

By specialising in edge AI, and developing both the software and hardware components, Axelera looks to give itself a competitive edge in a booming AI chip market dominated by the likes of Nvidia, Intel, and IBM. 

Speaking of IBM, Del Maffeo, who previously worked at Belgium-based tech lab Imec, co-founded Axelera alongside Evangelos Eleftheriou, a former veteran at the American tech giant.   

Axelera plans to put its AI processing units into full production in the latter half of this year. It looks to expand its presence in North America, where it already has an office, and into new industries such as automotive, digital healthcare, and surveillance. The startup is also exploring the development of high performance AI chips for data centres and supercomputers. 

Hailing from Eindhoven, Axelera exists in one of the most mature semiconductor tech hubs in the world. The city is home to Philips-founded NXP Semiconductors and ASML, which produces chip-making machines for almost every major semiconductor manufacturer on Earth. 

This latest funding round brings Axelera’s total raised to $120mn. New investors include the Samsung Catalyst Fund, European Innovation Council Fund, Innovation Industries Strategic Partnership Fund, and Invest-NL.

The warm weather finally arrived! But before we begin to wind things down for the summer months, let’s catch up once more with the latest developments in Dutch tech. 

Of course, in our mind, the best news from the week that passed was our own TNW Conference taking place in Zaandam, just outside of Amsterdam. (Next year we are back at one of our favourite locations at NDSM island, grab your 2-for-1 tickets now!) 

This year featured some of the best keynote speakers and panellists in our 18-year history, along with rich networking opportunities and the signature festival feel that TNW is known for.

What we are writing about

What we are reading 

Dutch Dealroom rival Bounce Watch secures pre-Seed funding (Silicon Canals)
Noord-Nederland helpt ASML voor Nederland te behouden (Computable.nl)
Europe is at risk of over-restricting AI and falling behind US and China, Dutch prince says (CNBC) 

Dutch startup of the week: Source.ag
Rien Kamman and Ernst van Bruggen founded Source.ag in 2020. Credit: Source.ag

Source.ag is a Dutch agtech startup founded in 2020 by Rien Kamman and Ernst van Bruggen. The company specialises in AI-driven solutions for greenhouse farming to address global food shortages while conserving water usage. 

Source.ag recently launched a new product called Source Cultivate which supports growers in their decision-making process with accurate yield forecasting up to eight weeks before harvest. It claims a 90% accuracy in yield forecasts three to four weeks out, and has been developed in collaboration with top-tier growers. 

Other products track and improve cultivation processes, streamline and enhance greenhouse operations, and also include an autonomous irrigation system which uses AI to adjust irrigation in real-time. 

The startup recently expanded into North America, opening an office in Chicago. It has raised a total of approximately $37mn to date. 

Our weekly coverage of Dutch tech news will be taking a break over the summer. If you have any ideas of what we should feature, a particularly interesting startup to keep an eye on, or what kind of news you would like to see covered, drop us a line and let us know. See you again in September!

A study led by Maynooth researchers found that there have been significant changes in weather extremes in Ireland, a trend they say is ‘seriously’ concerning.

Read more: Heatwaves are set to become much more common in Ireland

Blackrock Clinic and St Vincent’s Private Hospital will receive medical supplies such as sutures, surgical tools and heart valve repair products by drone.

Read more: Wing to deliver medical supplies to south Dublin hospitals

UK-based neobank Monzo has unveiled three app-based security features, aiming to safeguard user accounts from criminals even in the case of phone theft.

The new security tools are designed to prevent criminals from transferring or withdrawing amounts from Monzo accounts by offering an additional layer of protection. The digital bank plans to officially roll them out over the coming weeks.

To begin with, customers will be able to use the new “known locations” feature to indicate a specific, safe location (like their home or their workplace) where they need to be when moving amounts of money over a certain limit.

Monzo will use tracking technology to identify if its customer’s phone is in one of the selected locations and block any transactions that fall outside the scope.

Customers can also designate a trusted friend or family member, who also has a Monzo account, to double check bank transfers or savings withdrawals over a certain limit.

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The trusted contact will be able to see some of the transaction details and flag to the bank any suspicious activity. Monzo will put the transaction on hold until the trusted contact confirms it’s safe.

What’s the “trusted contact” feature looks like. Credit: Monzo

Finally, Monzo users will be able to receive a secret QR code either to print and save or to store digitally on another device. Then, they can scan the code with the Monzo app to confirm large transactions.

Monzo says the new features represent a first across mobile banking, as the industry is grappling with dangerously high levels of fraud.

Founded in 2015, Monzo’s mobile-only banking services quickly gained popularity and the startup achieved unicorn status in 2018. The company navigated financial challenges and significant losses during 2020-2021 but ultimately rebounded.

Monzo said it became profitable in 2023 and now counts a total of nine million users in the UK. In March, it raised £340mn in new funding, reaching a post-money valuation of £4bn. It reportedly secured an additional £190mn in May.

Evolve said there is evidence that LockBit downloaded customer information from its databases, causing concerns for fintechs that have worked with the bank.

Read more: Evolve Bank’s LockBit breach panics multiple fintechs