Inephany, an AI optimisation startup based in the capital, has announced the successful closure of a £1.8 million pre-seed funding round. The investment will be used to accelerate the development of the company’s innovative AI-powered optimisation platform.

The platform promises to transform the way neural networks, including Large Language Models (LLMs), are trained and fine-tuned. The funding round was spearheaded by Amadeus Capital Partners, with further investment from specialist AI venture capital firm Sure Valley Ventures and Professor Steve Young, a renowned figure in the AI field. Professor Young will also join Inephany as an angel investor and take on the role of company chair.

Inephany, which was founded by former Apple Siri engineer John Torr, intends to use the new capital to expand its core engineering team, further develop its optimisation platform, which is said to revolutionise how neural networks are trained and tuned, and onboard its initial enterprise clients.

John Torr, CEO of Inephany, commented: “We are thrilled to be backed by such experienced investors, and having a seasoned entrepreneur and AI pioneer like Professor Steve Young as our chair is a true privilege. Current approaches to training LLMs and other neural networks are extremely wasteful across multiple dimensions. Our unique solution tackles this inefficiency head-on, with the potential to radically reduce both the cost and time required to train and optimise state-of-the-art models.

“As we prepare to deliver our first products later this year, we are incredibly excited to embark on the next chapter of our journey—and to help shape the ongoing AI revolution by transforming AI optimisation.”

Image source: LinkedIn