Skymind targets the UK with its $800M AI investment fund

Shawn Tan, Skymind’s CEO, sees the company as offering a very different approach to the traditional investment approach. The company is involved in AI itself, with its own open-source enterprise software. Despite only being launched in 2020 Tan proudly tells UKTN, “over half of all Fortune 500 companies are using Skymind open-source software to launch AI innovations.” 

The company uses its knowledge and experience in AI to offer more than just venture capital. “We provide deep operational support and market access to our portfolio companies,” Tan explains. The approach is perhaps more akin to a coaching or partnership relationship than a traditional VC equity stake. Skymind offers hands-on support to its companies, helping to nurture and develop talent, and working with them to bring products to market. “Most of the world’s AI innovation stays in the research lab,” says Tan, “We want AI out in the real world, solving real-world problems.” 

The people-first approach has already had benefits, with Skymind already able to point to successes from their model. One such application was used at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic to assist in treatment. Covid-19 has puzzled many clinicians and researchers — especially towards the beginning of the pandemic — because it could sometimes be unpredictable, affecting people differently and being particularly severe in some patients. 

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