Artificial intelligence startup Domino Data Lab Inc. today disclosed that it has nabbed a $100 million investment from Great Hill Partners, Nvidia Corp. and existing backers.

San Francisco-based Domino Data Labs said that it will work more closely with Nvidia following the funding round. The companies will team up to integrate more of their products with another and expand joint sales activities.

Domino Data Lab competes in the so-called MLOps product category, which encompasses software tools that make it easier for enterprises to deploy and maintain AI models. The startup offers a Kubernetes-based platform that, it says, provides a single pane of glass for managing machine learning projects. Data science teams can use the platform to provision infrastructure, install AI development tools and make the neural networks they create available to colleagues via application programming interfaces.

Centralizing the AI development process in one platform, Domino Data Lab promises, will solve many of the challenges that commonly emerge in enterprise machine learning initiatives.

One task the startup promises to ease is provisioning infrastructure for AI projects. Often, data science teams require help from the information technology department to set up AI infrastructure, which creates more work for IT personnel. In other cases, data science teams spin up hardware on their own, which has the potential to create challenges as well. Infrastructure provisioned without the supervision of IT personnel can lead to cost overruns and cybersecurity issues.

Domino Data Lab says its platform allows IT teams to allocate hardware resources to data science teams through a centralized interface with point-and-click controls. The result, according to the startup, is a reduction in the amount of manual work required to manage AI infrastructure.

When it comes to software, data science uses a variety of development tools to build neural networks. In addition, they often draw on algorithms and other AI building blocks from the open-source ecosystem. Each software component has the potential to contain cybersecurity vulnerabilities, which is why enterprises often test new technologies adopted by their data science teams before deployment.

Domino Data Lab says its platform allows companies to manage centrally what software data science teams use. In the interest of further improving cybersecurity, the startup encrypts the data that customers use as part of their projects. Files are scrambled both when they’re sent across the network and while they’re kept in storage.

According to Domino Data Lab, its platform is used by more than 20% of the Fortune 100. The startup says the hardware provisioning features and other productivity capabilities in its platform have saved thousands of hours of engineering time for some customers, allowing AI projects to be completed faster. 

A second, perhaps just as significant task that MLOps offerings promise to ease for enterprises is recruiting. A poll commissioned by Data Domino Lab found that many firms find it difficult to hire enough AI professionals. According to the startup, simplifying the operational tasks involved in building AI software can enable a company’s existing data science teams to take on machine learning projects that were previously too complicated. The result is that enterprises have to hire fewer AI specialists. 

Domino Data Lab’s plans for the new $100 million in funding it has raised include expanding its partnership with Nvidia. The companies will work to make the startup’s platform easier to deploy on AI systems featuring the chipmaker’s graphics cards. As part of the effort, Domino Data Lab will have its platform certified to run on Nvidia AI Enterprise, a software suite that makes it possible to run AI software on many kinds of infrastructure.

“AI and data science are new workloads that demand a full-stack solution — one with tools that simplify development and deployment for customers,” said Manuvir Das, head of enterprise computing at Nvidia. “With Nvidia AI Enterprise integration into the Domino platform, customers will be able to easily integrate advanced AI tools into their traditional data center infrastructure.”

In a blog post today, Domino Data Lab co-founder and Chief Executive Nick Elprin said the startup will be “establishing a team dedicated to supporting our customers as they build competitive advantage with Nvidia accelerated computing solutions.” The startup also plans to step up hiring in other areas. 

The funding round represents a particularly valuable boost for Domino Data Lab given that the MLOps segment in which it operates has become more competitive recently. In July, $6.3 billion AI development startup DataRobot Inc. acquired MLOps provider Algorithmia Inc. to expand its market share.

Domino Data Lab has raised $228 million in funding to date.

Image: Domino Data Lab