Grace Ashiru
South African (AIaaS) provider DataProphet has released an official statement saying: the conclusion of its Series A investment round, which had a total amount of $10 million and had begun in 2020 with a round of $6 million headed by Norican and IDC.
Knife Capital, which first invested in DataProphet in early 2018 through its KNF Ventures Section 12J funding vehicle, led this latest round. This latest round of funding came from the company’s recently launched Knife Fund III, which is meant to help African scale-ups reach their international goals.
According to Knife Capital, the Knife Fund III fund is currently accepting new investments and has the support of several reputable financial institutions, including the Mineworkers Investment Company,the International Finance Corporation, the South African Small and Medium Enterprise Fund, select family offices, and other respectable financial institutions.
Keet van Zyl, a partner and Co-founder at Knife Capital, made the following statement regarding the company’s investment in DataProphet: Given the industry-leading nature of DataProphet’s technology, accelerating the company’s international expansion is a top priority and it is precisely the goal of our new Fund, and it couldn’t be more appropriate for our very first investment to be a continuation of the one we’ve already made with our previous group of investors.“
DataProphet is an artificial intelligence (AI) firm established in 2014 by Frans Cronje and Daniel Schwartzkopff. The company asserts that it can position companies in a competitive market in manufacturing sector to move toward fully automated, energy-efficient production to improve overall manufacturing performance.
PRESCRIBE is the company’s main product. It is a deep learning solution created to lower the production risk involved with multi-step processes. In addition, it makes it possible for clients to save their expenditures by an average of forty percent, and it assists producers in climbing the digital adoption curve.
Cronje remarked that the funds would be utilized to develop the business into new markets and source fresh talent. He made this statement about the fundraising round.
“I am delighted with the continuous support that Knife Capital has provided for DataProphet. In the future, we plan to use these additional funds to accelerate our expansion into new areas and enter new markets. Create new connections that align with our machine builder approach, and push on with our internationalization efforts. He said that recruiting outstanding personnel was another crucial pillar that would help the company thrive on its momentum.
Since Knife Capital made its initial investment in the company in 2018, the startup has been proceeding along a fantastic growth trajectory. After increasing the size of its staff, growing its customer base to include people from Europe, the Americas, and Asia, and taking home several honors, in the most recent Global Business Excellence Awards, “Outstanding Innovation Category” was one of the categories.
In addition, CBInsights has recently ranked it as one of the Top 50 Advanced Manufacturing Start-ups.
