Artificial intelligence digital transformation startup FortressIQ Inc. today exited stealth mode with the announcement of $12 million in new funding.

The Series A round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, comes on top of a seed round of $4 million last year from Boldstart Ventures, Comcast Ventures and Eniac Ventures.

Founded in 2017, FortressIQ offers an online compliance and security platform intended to help enterprise companies get the most out of their automation and AI initiatives.

FortressIQ’s Cognitive Automation Platform is said to use an AI and machine learning in a process that learns the same way that humans do: through observation. “It transparently learns a business process and all its permutations as it occurs in real-time, then assesses, analyzes and provides valuable insights to guide operational change in days,” the company explains.

Digital transformation, the process of transforming business and organizational activities, processes, competencies and models to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of digital technologies is a rapidly growing market. Market and Markets Research estimates it will be worth $493 billion by 2022 with a compound annual growth rate of about 19 percent.

FortressIQ is aiming for a slice of that market using AI and machine learning for best-of-market processing that includes cognitive prediction to assist businesses in not only knowing what is required but also how it applies to their employees.

Combining “computer vision + natural language + sequence modeling to accelerate digital transformation projects for the Global 2000,” a spokesperson for FortressIQ said, the company claims to “reduce current states assessments from months to weeks” while “lowering costs by up to 90 percent.”

Photo: FortressIQ