AI is no longer poised to change the world someday; it’s changing the world now. As we begin a new year and decade, VentureBeat turned to some of the keenest minds in AI to revisit progress made in 2019 and look ahead to how machine learning will mature in 2020.

According to Toptal, the venture capital sector has grown by 12.1% annually since the financial crisis. The same source tells us that the amount of capital raised per year has grown by 100% over the decade. Companies with a focus on AI have collected over 9.3 billion dollars in the US during 2018.

Along with intelligent applications, using AI to improve automation, security, and knowledge sharing will have far-reaching benefits.

NEW YORK, NY, December 19, 2019 — Azafran Capital Partners, an early stage venture fund investing in companies ($2M to $8M) that are using deep learning and machine learning, emphasizing voice, acoustics and imagery datasets in the health, wellness, IoT/automation and enterprise spaces, is pleased to announce the addition of Jock Percy as Partner.

Jock Percy is widely recognized as a leading entrepreneur and visionary, with deep expertise in finance, technology, networks, trading, and market connectivity. Most recently Jock was founder and CEO of Perseus, the world’s leading ultra-low latency global connectivity and hosting platform for high-speed, high-performance applications, including a world first, high precision time as a service globally.

Over his 22 year career, Jock has orchestrated numerous successful technology business M&A deals in both the corporate (BT, Sharp) and startup arenas including Perseus, which was sold to GTT (NYSE:GTT), as well as FXecosystem which he co-founded, patented and sold.

“We are thrilled to have Jock Percy join the Azafran Capital Partners team,” notes Azafran Managing Partner, James F. Kenefick. “Jock is a perfect fit, bringing a like-minded passion that matches the Azafran focus and ethos, plus decades of experience at the highest levels and deep experience as a data-driven and successful entrepreneur in the finance, technology and networking markets,” added Kenefick.

Jock has served on a number of corporate boards is a longtime member of Young Professionals Organization (YPO). Hailing from New Zealand, he has a PhD from the University of Canterbury and UCL and has been a lifelong Rugby player and supporter.

About Azafran Capital Partners

At Azafran Capital, our mission is to identify + invest in + support transformational entrepreneurs, their inventions and business models – helping them advance and succeed. We see this as a moment in time where voice, acoustics and imagery are center stage. From customer care to health care, entrepreneurs across the globe are developing incredible, groundbreaking solutions and technologies to take advantage of the base layer elements.

Azafran’s partners and senior team are seasoned entrepreneurs, operators and investors who are both forward looking and data backed. Our team’s combined experience has produced over $9B of M&A value, 127 M&A transactions, and 13 start up exits with over $700M in capital raised.

As proven entrepreneurs and investors, we invest early in innovative teams solving challenging problems disrupting large markets with deep technology, embedded in end to end solutions. Our focus is on founders and companies building end to end solutions emphasizing voice, acoustics and imagery datasets in the health, wellness, IoT/automation and enterprise spaces.

For more information please visit www.AzafranCapitalPartners or contact:

James F. Kenefick, Managing Partner
jfk@azafranpartners.com
(w) +1 212.913.0700 ext. 301
413 West 14th St., Suite 200
New York, NY 10014

At the Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) conference this week in Vancouver, Canada, machine learning took center stage as 13,000 researchers explored things like neuroscience, how to interpret neural network outputs, and how AI can help solve big real-world problems.