Distributed machine learning startup Boosted.ai announced today it has raised $8 million in new funding to develop out its platform.

The Series A round was led by Portag3 Ventures with participation by Dunamu & Partners and Polar Equity Partners. Adam Felesky from Portag3 Ventures has joined Boosted.ai’s board.

Founded in 2017, Boosted.ai offers Boosted Insights, a machine learning platform designed to allow portfolio managers, analysts and chief investment officers to augment their existing investment processes, source new ideas and manage risks. Described as a first-to-market artificial intelligence platform for investment professionals, the platform supports idea generation, portfolio construction and portfolio monitoring without requiring coding or other expertise.

The company pitches its machine learning capabilities as allowing the analysis of data in real time at a scale and scope that is unmatched by humans. The platform is said to help identify nonintuitive relationships between data and securities, minimizing error in predictions, improving risk management and decision-making.

Boosted.ai says it has more than a dozen active clients and services the full spectrum of asset managers, including long-only mutual funds, long-short hedge funds, family offices and the investment arms of commercial banks. Combined assets under management by those using Boosted Insights is claimed to be in excess of $500 billion.

“According to the CFA Institute, there are five main hurdles to using artificial intelligence within investment management: cost, talent, technology, vision and time,” Chief Executive Joshua Pantony said in a statement. “Boosted Insights solves all five hurdles for managers. Our mission is to bring elements of quantitative management to the finance industry at large as data becomes the difference between winning and losing for investors globally.”

Including the new funding, Boosted.ai has raised $11 million to date.

Image: Boosted.ai