Singapore-based Ai Palette announced today that it has raised $4.4 million USD in an oversubscribed Series A round. The round was co-led by Exfinity Venture Partners and pi Ventures, with participation from Anthill Ventures and return investors VC AgFunder and Decacorn Capital. This brings the company’s total funding to $5.5 million USD.
Ai Palette uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to help CPG and food companies predict consumer trends as they emerge. The company’s first product is called Foresight Engine, which can track a trend’s future trajectory, consumers driving it, and its maturity. The machine learning platform recognizes 15 different languages and can process data from various sources including images.
It is estimated that approximately 10,000 new CPG products are released each year, and within two years, 85 percent of these products will fail. Staying ahead of trends can help companies differentiate from competitors, directly target consumer preferences, and time product launches.
The use of AI and machine learning can help identify trends early, and speed up the R&D process. In turn, this can help food companies bring their product to market faster. Besides Ai Palette, several other companies offer trend-predicting services including Tastewise, Spoonshot, Halla, and Analytical Flavor Systems.
Besides emerging trends, these services can additionally predict taste preferences in different regions of the world. For example, Ai Palette analyzed 1.2 billion data points to track beverage trends in the U.S., Canada, India, and Southeast Asia during the summertime. It was found that in the U.S., the use of acerola cherry in juice drinks has experienced a year-over-year growth rate of 254 percent.
Ai Palette will use its new capital to expand its customer base outside of Asia, recruit new data science and engineering talent, and develop new product lines.
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