A London-based startup with software that helps companies speed up AI training has raised $7.5 million in funding.
AgileRL has created a platform called Arena where engineers and data scientists can drop their AI models, run simulations, fine-tune them before deployment, and monitor them during execution.
Co-founded in 2023 by Param Kumar and Nicholas Ustaran-Anderegg, the startup focuses on reinforcement learning (RL), an AI training technique in which systems learn by trying out actions and improving them based on the feedback they receive.
Reinforcement learning's roots date back to the 1950s, but it's experiencing something of a renaissance in AI research labs.
AgileRL CEO Kumar told Business Insider that since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, companies have “shifted budgets away from RL efforts” and focused on transformers, the technology behind large language models. Whereas transformers learn patterns from large datasets all at once, RL learns one step at a time. More companies are now recognizing the limitations of transformers, he says.
“We realized early on that transformers are great, but they are large statistical models,” Kumar says. “In reality, there’s only so much you can infer from the data, so you have to layer RL on top of that.”
Kumar gave the example of a robotic arm tasked with moving a ball from one table to another. He said movements can be broken down into many smaller tasks, such as grasping a ball, lifting an arm, or moving a joint, and that AgileRL's platform allows engineers to set parameters to improve these specific tasks.
The company says that instead of starting an AI lab from scratch, the training tools are all in one place and commercially available, helping companies speed up their AI development.
AgileRL has a free tier that gives users access to a limited amount of training credits. Custom licenses are available for large enterprises, as well as paid tiers for businesses and professionals.
The company says its platform has been downloaded more than 300,000 times and is used by companies such as Airbus, IBM, and JP Morgan.
AgileRL's seed funding round was led by Fusion Fund with participation from Flying Fish, Octopus Ventures, Entrepreneur First, and Counterview Capital.
The company said it plans to use the funding to open an office in San Francisco and hire more than a dozen people in engineering and market development roles.
Here's an exclusive look at the 12-page pitch deck AgileRL used to raise $7.5 million.
