Former Infosys’ chief Vishal Sikka raises $50 million for his AI startup Vian Systems

Infosys’ former chief executive Vishal Sikka has raised $50 million for its California-based artificial intelligence startup Vian Systems, according to regulatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

While Vishal Sikka has been reportedly working on the startup for more than a year, there has been a little update about the precise offering by Vian Systems. Currently, the website only talks about “building a world full of life and intelligence.”

Along with the undisclosed equity offered for the fundraising, it also “includes contribution of certain intellectual property assets,” said the filing seen by Financial Express Online.

The filing added that two investors already have invested in the offering to Vian Systems that has revenues in the range of $1-$1 million.

Also, Vishal Sikka has received no compensation for his role in the offering beyond his usual and customary salary as an officer of the corporation, the filing said with respect to the amount of the gross proceeds of the offering that has been or is proposed to be used for payments to executive officers, directors, or promoters.

Vishal Sikka is also on-board Stanford University’s Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence as part of its advisory council that also has LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Alphabet’s technical advisor Eric Schmidt etc.

Vishal Sikka had quit Infosys in August 2017 following a clash with the company’s other top leaders citing “the distractions, the very public noise around us” in his personal blog post.

The global AI market was valued at $16.06 billion in 2017 and is likely to hit $190.61 billion mark by 2025 growing at a CAGR of 36.62 per cent, as per a report by MarketsandMarkets.

Globally and in India, businesses across sizes have been incorporating AI and other deeptech tools such as machine learning, big data analytics to drive efficiency out of customer behaviour and data.

Conversational commerce chatbot Niki.ai, retail automation platform Mad Streen Den, edtech startup Embibe, healthtech startups SigTuple and Niramai are among the leading AI startups in India.