Insider Brief
- Zerve secured $7.6 million in seed funding, led by Paladin Capital Group, to enhance its AI and data science development platform, which streamlines workflows for data teams by addressing deployment, version control, and cloud infrastructure challenges.
- Launched in February 2024, Zerve’s platform has reduced project cycle times by up to 9x for elite data teams and attracted over 4,000 users within three months, focusing on maximizing throughput and efficiency for data teams.
- With the new funding, Zerve plans to accelerate research and development to expand its platform’s capabilities, positioning itself for growth as AI spending continues to rise globally.
PRESS RELEASE — Zerve has announced the closing of a $7.6 million seed funding round, led by Paladin Capital Group with participation from existing investor Elkstone and angels, including Rob Hickey, former Executive Vice President of Engineering at DataRobot. The company described this milestone as a significant step in its mission to enhance the impact of data teams through its innovative data science and AI development platform.
Established in 2021, Zerve is focused on improving the effectiveness of AI and data workflows with a developer-centric platform built on its patented architecture, which ensures resilience and scalability. According to Zerve, many AI and data workflows that could have transformative effects on organizations often face hurdles such as deployment handovers, version control issues, and challenges related to cloud infrastructure. The company’s end-to-end platform is designed to simplify the building, management, and deployment of these workflows, significantly reducing cycle times for code-first data teams and maximizing return on investment.
Zerve raised $3.8 million in pre-seed funding in October 2023, led by Elkstone, and officially launched its product in February. Since then, it has onboarded elite data teams in major organizations worldwide, with users reporting up to a 9x reduction in cycle times. Over 4,000 users have signed up for Zerve’s free product tier within just three months of its launch. The company is led by co-founders Phily Hayes (CEO), Jason Hilary (CTO), and Dr. Greg Michaelson (CPO).
Phily Hayes explained that Zerve measures its success by how much throughput teams can achieve, whether by reducing project cycle times or speeding up recommendations. He stated that their platform removes many smaller hurdles that typically slow down AI and data projects, which often feel like “death by 1,000 cuts.”
Ken Pentimonti, Managing Director at Paladin Capital Group, expressed excitement about Zerve’s future, noting that the platform addresses critical limitations in current solutions, which often hinder innovation in organizations. He emphasized that with AI spending in Europe alone reaching $33 billion in 2023 and growing 30% annually, Zerve is well-positioned for success.
With this latest funding, Zerve plans to accelerate research and development and expand its platform to empower more high-performing data teams.
Featured image: Credit: Zerve
