DataRobot to invest S$15 million in Singapore

Source: DataRobot. Screen capture of the DataRobot
enterprise automated machine learning platform.

US-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm DataRobot will invest S$15 million in Singapore as part of its expansion plans into the region. The investment will be primarily used to set up its regional business HQ in the country as well as to expand its advanced AI R&D centre.

Depending on economic and business performance, DataRobot could increase its investment into the Singapore operations by up to an additional S$50 million. Fifty percent of the initial investment will be spent on hiring. DataRobot plans to hire 50 employees here by 2019 with 40% of the staff being technical experts and data scientists.

Jeremy Achin, CEO and co-founder of DataRobot said: “We see Asia-Pacific as a key growth market for us. The rise of the data-driven economy favours corporations which can make better sense of their data to gain a competitive advantage. The future is in AI and we believe Singapore can be the regional centre of this brave new world.”

Edwin Low, Director of Accreditation@SGD, Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) said: “Globally, there is a shortage of data scientists. DataRobot’s product empowers employees with deep domain knowledge to perform complex data science work with their automated machine learning platform. This will help alleviate the need for data scientists and thus enable more companies to benefit from AI. We are pleased to partner DataRobot in establishing Singapore as their hub for their next phase of regional growth.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been identified by the Singapore government as one of the key pillars of technology that it will focus on to keep Singapore economically competitive. Earlier this month, Minister for Communications and Information Dr Yaacob Ibrahim announced the addition of DataRobot to its list of AI technology providers under the Accreditation@SGD programme. The programme gives the stamp of approval to cutting-edge tech solution providers which have passed IMDA's stringent evaluation process and accelerates their growth in the region.

DataRobot’s technology has been used globally to help insurance companies detect fraudulent claims, businesses set competitive pricing, financial institutions predict loan defaults and many more. DataRobot has been recognised as one of CB Insights’ top 100 AI companies. Many of DataRobot's data scientists are also thought leaders in their international community.