AI startup Datagen on verge of closure after laying off almost all remaining workforce
AI startup Datagen on verge of closure after laying off almost all remaining workforce
The emergence of generative AI significantly hurt the Israeli company and led to major layoffs already three months ago, as well as negotiations with Meta for a potential acquisition, which never came to fruition
AI startup Datagen is on the verge of closure. Three months after a substantial round of layoffs, the company has let go of nearly all of its remaining employees, leaving only a team of ten. Initially hailed as a promising venture due to its involvement in artificial intelligence, the company was rocked following the rise of generative AI.
As of last May, Datagene boasted a workforce of 110 employees. However, the company soon realized the need to reinvent itself after the emergence of ChatGPT and Bard, as well as other Gen AI offerings, made its solution less relevant. This led to staff reductions and negotiations with Meta for a potential acquisition. Unfortunately, these discussions did not come to fruition. Consequently, a small team has been retained at Datagen to brainstorm a new direction for the company.
Datagen raised $50 million in a Series B funding round in March 2022, bringing the company's total funding to $70 million. The company, established in 2018 by two Technion graduates, Ofir Chakon and Gil Elbaz, developed a data simulator that accelerates the construction of artificial intelligence models. The round was led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors TLV Partners, Viola Ventures and Spider Capital.
The Israeli company’s simulator is built on synthetic information and thus allows significant acceleration of the process of training models of artificial intelligence in the field of computer vision. The solution developed by Datagen creates a three-dimensional simulation of reality and quickly feeds ML machines with the image data required for AI training in a visual manner.
