Samasource, an AI training data provider, has raised USD 14.8 million, from Ridge Ventures.
The investment will see Ridge ventures principal, Ben Metcalfe, join the startup’s board.
He said, “Samasource is a rare instance when an investor can make a difference in more than just the balance sheet. It’s the type of symmetry a VC craves, and relevant considering Sama means ‘equal’ in Sanskrit.”
Samasource will channel the funds into scaling its marketing and engineering operations, increase talent, as well as upgrading its technology.
Samasource taps into the wealth of technical talent, primarily in East Africa, to generate data for companies to train their Machine Learning algorithms with.
Part of the funds has been alotted to hiring 90 more employees for its Uganda operations.
Samasource CEO, Leila Jana is aiming towards growing the Kampala staff by 150% in 2020.
Samasource’ staff includes 2900 individuals in Kenya, Uganda, New York, San Fransisco and The Hague.
The investment has also enabled Samasource to set up an AI development center in Montreal, Canada.
Samasource has also expanded its digital delivery center in Uganda, with the aim of attracting corporate clientele.
The company’s income is primarily from its machine learning data annotation and validation services.
The firm started as a non-profit in 2008, and has worked with clients such as Google, Walmart, IBM and Ford.
The company switched to a for-profit model in 2019.
