New artificial intelligence startups seem to be popping up every week, but investors still cannot seem to get enough of them as the AI industry continues to soar. Kyndi, a Palo Alto-based AI startup, is one of the latest companies to get a piece of the AI funding pie, as it announced today that it has closed an $8.5 million funding round.

The Series B round included investments from PivotNorth Capital, Darling Ventures and Citrix Systems. Kyndi’s latest financing puts its total funding to date at $12 million. The company said it has doubled in size since it launched in 2014, though it didn’t provide absolute numbers.

Kyndi offers several AI solutions, starting with what it calls “horizon scanning,” which aims to predict a wide range of business outcomes to help companies plan ahead, either to mitigate risk or to jump on opportunities that might arise. For example, Kyndi said, its AI can quickly analyze hundreds of documents to predict how one country’s space program could fare in comparison to others.

The company also offers an AI solution that uses natural-language understanding to sift through scholarly journals and other resources to keep companies up to date on the latest scientific research in their industries. Kyndi said its natural-language AI can also be used to create powerful chatbots that can understand general questions without needing to be specifically trained for every potential scenario.

According to the company, the primary goal behind its AI solutions is to make businesses more agile and allow them to make sense of large volumes of data faster than ever before. “In some cases what was once a yearlong effort can be accomplished in a single day,” the company says on its website.

Silicon Valley is rife with AI startups, so Kyndi has plenty of competition, but Tim Connors, founder of PivotNorth Capital, said Kyndi stands out from the rest of the pack.

“I believe that Kyndi’s proven technology and unique analytical model truly differentiate the company in an increasingly competitive and global AI marketplace,” he said. “Kyndi is leading the shift away from the backward-looking ‘predictive’ analytics approach to an AI-driven model that enables business and governmental customers to create critical knowledge faster by anticipating future intentions, opportunities and threats.”

Andy Cohen, vice president of strategic development and investments at Citrix, added that Kyndi’s approach “is helping to make the power and promise of AI and machine learning a practical reality today.”

Photo: Infowire.dk (license)