Maana, the pioneer of digital knowledge technology, today announced it has raised $28 million in Series C funding. The round is led by China International Capital Corporation (CICC) and Eight Square Capital. Other new investors include Accenture Ventures and Sino Capital. All of Maana’s existing strategic investors, Intel Capital, GE Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and Shell Technology Ventures participated.
The funding demonstrates confidence from strategic global investors in the key role the Maana Knowledge Platform ™ is playing to accelerate industrial digital transformation. Investments in Maana to date total $68 million. Maana has purposely chosen to take strategic investments to enable the company to develop a mature platform designed specifically to address the toughest industrial digitization challenges.
“Maana is pleased to announce new funding from major global strategic investors,” said Babur Ozden, CEO and co-founder, Maana. “The latest investment will be used to scale our business globally and support our growing Fortune Global 500 customer base. This funding combined with the strategic alliance Maana has established with Accenture, demonstrates the demand for Maana’s cutting-edge AI-driven knowledge technology as a key enabler of digital transformation at the world’s largest industrial companies.”
“At CICC we pride ourselves in investing in disruptive technologies,” said Qing (Tracy) Gao, managing director and vice chairman of CICC Capital Overseas, and managing partner of Global Bridge Capital, a fund based in Silicon Valley sponsored by CICC and CM Capital. “From our decades of experience in China, digital transformation at China’s industrial enterprises will have a profound effect on improving corporate operations and enhancing the global economy. We believe the Maana Knowledge Platform™ has the potential to become the essential digital knowledge layer of the world’s industrial data and deliver significant business value to industrial companies.”
“Investments in digital technologies are helping enterprises, especially those in the oil and gas sector, generate hundreds of millions of dollars in operational efficiencies and new revenue sources,” said Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s chief technology & innovation officer. “Over the past year we have seen how Maana’s knowledge platform was being adopted to accelerate digital transformation at some of the world’s largest industrial companies. By investing and partnering with Maana, Accenture will develop hundreds of AI-based knowledge applications to help our industrial clients augment and improve their human decision making.”
In 2017 Maana’s technology was recognized by several well-respected industry organizations, including the World Economic Forum recognizing Maana as a 2017 Technology Pioneer; CERAWeek the world’s preeminent energy conference organized by IHS Markit naming Maana one of eight 2017 Energy Innovation Pioneers; and CB Insights recognizing Maana as one of one hundred most promising private artificial intelligence companies in the world.
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