Firm which has developed a training platform for robots raises £2.8m

Steve Harris

Sheffield-based Mindtech Global, developer of a platform for the creation of synthetic training data for AI vision systems, has revealed a strategic investment round led by Appen, a global leader in data for AI.

This new investment round, including participation from Appen and existing Mindtech investors, follows an original investment last year when Mindtech raised £2.3m in a funding round led by NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia and is part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF).

Since then, the company has created five new jobs in Sheffield and now plans to double the size of its team in Yorkshire.

In addition to the latest investment, Appen and Mindtech have formed a commercial partnership to provide a range of real and synthetic images and associated data and metadata annotation services to the market.

Appen’s leadership in labelling real-world data combined with Mindtech’s platform for the creation and management of synthetic data will accelerate the development of more accurate AI systems.

Mindtech’s platform, Chameleon, is complementary to Appen’s existing data and annotation services.

Chameleon’s platform is designed for the creation and automated annotation of synthetic data to train human-to-human and human-to-world AI applications.

Mark Brayan, CEO at Appen, said: “Synthetic data is an invaluable resource in the training of AI models and when combined with real-world data can enable outstanding results.

“We’re excited to partner with Mindtech as their automated end-to-end end synthetic data platform produces the right synthetic data for our customers, faster than competing solutions.”

Steve Harris, CEO at Mindtech, added: “We’re excited about this strategic partnership with Appen – it’s going to enable more customers to rapidly train their AI systems on scalable synthetic data while complementing Appen’s existing products in real-world data collection, management and annotation.

“By working in partnership, we’ll further accelerate the development of AI systems that better understand how humans interact with each other and the world around them.”

Sean Hutchinson, senior investment manager at British Business Bank, said: “The progress Mindtech has made since it was established in 2019 has been impressive.

“The funding from NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance in July 2021 has enabled the company to create five new roles, with plans to double its workforce in the next 12 months now in place.

“This latest round of investment is a testament to the exceptional talent we have in Sheffield and the North, and we are excited to continue providing businesses, such as Mindtech, the opportunities to realise their growth goals and expand their global presence.”

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