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and the out of China led the round, which also included participation from existing backers , and . As part of the financing, , vice president of Goldman Sachs鈥� principal strategic investments group, will be joining H2O.ai鈥檚 board.

The round brings H2O.ai鈥檚 since it was founded in 2012 to nearly $147 million. Wells Fargo and led its in November 2017.

I hopped on the phone this morning with , CEO and founder of H2O.ai, and he told me that by democratization, his company aims to make it 鈥渇aster, cheaper and easier鈥� for businesses to use AI.

鈥淩ight now it鈥檚 too expensive and difficult because of the talent, time and resources one needs to try AI and to make it work,鈥� he said. 鈥淚mplementation costs are so expensive for SMBs and large businesses alike. Our goal is to make it really easy to power businesses with AI by essentially making it automatic to the extent that is possible.鈥�

It鈥檚 doing that with its automatic machine learning platform, H2O Driverless AI, which Ambati said has tripled H2O.ai鈥檚 customer base 鈥渨ith expansion across every industry on every continent鈥� since that last round. By using H2O.ai, hundreds of customers such as Aetna, Booking.com, Walgreens, and Capital One 鈥渁re becoming AI companies..and leading AI transformations in their respective verticals,鈥� the startup claims.

For Ambati, the fact that its own customers have led its last two funding rounds is a testament to open source company鈥檚 value.

鈥淲e are making them the true AI superpowers,鈥� he added. 鈥淲e want to empower businesses and organizations to monetize their data and build their own AI to take on the tech giants such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft that are coming into their spaces.鈥�

H2O.ai is seeing a huge following in the retail sector, for example, because so many retailers are trying to compete with 鈥渢he onslaught of the online giants,鈥� Ambati said.

The Mountain View-based company鈥檚 ARR (annual recurring revenue) is growing in line with its customer base. ARR has tripled over the last two years, according to Ambati. Meanwhile, employee headcount is 175, about double what it was 18 months ago. H2O.ai recently opened a Center for AI Excellence and Research in Prague, Czech Republic as well as offices in India and Canada.

H2O.ai said it plans to use the new capital 鈥渢o accelerate innovation and expand sales and marketing globally.鈥�

The company also notes that it supports an organization called AI4Good, which focuses on wildlife and water conservation. It also has made its technology free to academics, so currently, hundreds of students, researchers and universities are using it.

Investors

The company鈥檚 investors are naturally bullish on H2O.ai鈥檚 offering. Goldman Sach鈥檚 Mandel said the company’s 鈥渄eep technical bench and customer centricity make them well positioned to bring transparency and efficiency to the world of prediction.鈥�

Meanwhile, , managing director of strategic investments at Well Fargo, said the bank is impressed with H2O.ai鈥檚 ability to apply AI to help provide 鈥渋nsightful and personalized client experiences.鈥�

, managing director and COO of the Ping An Global Voyager Fund, said that his firm likes the 鈥渃ombination of technical sophistication and ease of use present in all of H2O.ai鈥檚 offerings.鈥� The firm plans to help the company expand its footprint in China and across Asia.

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