Samsung NEXT launches Q Fund for next generation of AI startups

Samsung NEXT, which focuses on entrepreneurs based in Mountain View, California, said Thursday it has launched a new fund to help enable startups with early-stage artificial intelligence technologies to develop their capabilities further.

Q Fund will provide Seed and Series A financing to startups solving AI problems, as well as those using AI to solve computer science problems.

Differing from traditional venture capital approaches, Q Fund will have the flexibility to invest in non-obvious, forward-thinking approaches to AI instead of applied AI technologies already seen in the market, according to the group. 

“For the past 10 years, we’ve watched software eat the world. Now, it’s AI’s turn to eat software,” said Vincent Tang at Samsung NEXT Ventures. “We’re launching Q Fund to support the next generation of AI startups who look to scratch beyond the surface of what we know today.”

With Q Fund, Samsung NEXT recently invested in Covariant.AI, which draws on advances in imitation learning and deep reinforcement learning to teach robots new, complex skills, highlighting the new fund’s focus on startups replacing conventional algorithms, data structures and general purpose computer programs with learned systems.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)