Former Nvidia employee Gaurav Agarwal secures funding for his startup, RagaAI, which specializes in repairing malfunctioning AI systems.
RagaAI has obtained funding to create a tool that focuses on identifying and resolving issues within artificial intelligence systems, in response to the growing importance of safety and dependability in the AI industry.
The startup founded by Gaurav Agarwal, an alumnus of chip makers Nvidia Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc., has come out of stealth mode to close a $4.7 million seed round led by pi Ventures. It was joined by companies such as Anorak Ventures and TenOneTen Ventures. The Silicon Valley startup uses basic models to detect and fix AI problems, such as hallucinations — a well-publicized phenomenon — or ignoring critical real-time data.
The 44-year-old founder recounted what he called a near-death experience while test-driving a semi-autonomous vehicle on a California highway. The AI couldn’t detect road debris, so he had to brake manually to avoid the accident, he said.
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“I have seen AI failures at Ola and Nvidia,” Agarwal, also the startup’s CEO, said in a phone interview. “Such scenarios need to be avoided as a matter of urgency, especially in high-stakes AI use cases such as cancer detection, aircraft maintenance, and AI-powered recruitment tools.”
Agarwal, who is based in Fremont, California, created RagaAI before OpenAI released ChatGPT, which catalyzed the global development of large language models. RagaAI is one of the new startups that are trying to fill this need that has arisen during busy operations.
According to a PwC study, AI could potentially contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. But much of today’s activity focuses on building models and applications rather than diagnosing or testing bugs.
RagaAI’s platform — which Agarwal said his team developed in-house — offers more than 300 tests to help companies solve problems and trace their root causes. It can detect things like poor data entry and bias, he said. It helps detect hallucinations — false and misleading information presented as fact — and also deliberate attacks or attempts to trick the model into making mistakes, Agarwal added.
His startup will use the capital for research and expand its team of around 40 engineers, mainly in Bangalore. It already works with several large clients in e-commerce, aerospace and medical imaging, although Agarwal would not disclose names. The platform has been able to help customers reduce failures by 90%, he said without elaborating.
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