Skymind Global Ventures (SGV), the venture arm of Skymind, has announced its first spin-off – Konduit. According to the company, Konduit offers a portfolio of open source tools that support machine learning practitioners. The company’s goal is to bridge the gap between research and enterprise and get the latest AI innovation into the market as quickly as possible. Konduit’s core holdings will be in London due to the business-friendly environment of the UK and easy access to global markets and talent
Konduit’s collaborations via Eclipse Deeplearning4j project include companies like IBM, Redhat, Nvidia, Intel, CISCO, Cloudera, NEC and Bosch. According to the SGV website, Konduit technology is the underlying AI framework used by more than half of the fortune 500 companies to build their AI applications.
Adam Gibson, the creator of Konduit and CTO of Skymind, will lead Konduit as its CEO and focus on developing core partnerships and raising new capital, led by SGV.
Shawn Tan, CEO of Skymind, said their decision to spin-off Konduit comes when demand for AI is continuing to rise.
“London remains the best place to set up the firm, thanks to its business friendly policies and proximity to continental Europe as well as its robust political system and access to venture capital and talent. London also has the necessary network in place to enable us to build more relationships with partners and to expand our reach beyond Europe to other regions, including Asia and the Americas.”
Gibson said they chose the UK because they want to work in a country that is globally minded and aligns with their values as an organisation.
“London is also the world’s cultural capital – with a population that reflects the rich diversity of global society. We are equally impressed with the UK’s progressive attitude towards innovation, which is crucial to the growth of open source development. Many of our partners are also based in European countries or hail from the continent, and it therefore makes sense for us to be closer to them and to share in the challenge of promoting the potential of open source to the rest of the world.”
While Konduit is moving to the UK, the Eclipse Foundation will be headquartered in Brussels.
Gibson said they started as a research division within Skymind but the division has now transformed into a viable commercial business.