NVIDIA : Inception Program for AI Startups Adds 2,000th Member

Less than 18 months after its launch, NVIDIA's Inception program - which helps accelerate startups pushing the frontiers of AI and data science - has signed up its 2,000th member company.

The milestone was reached with Imagry, a Haifa, Israel-based startup using machine learning to embed image recognition capabilities on any device. NVIDIA made the announcement in Tel Aviv, at our inaugural GPU Technology Conference in Israel, part of a series of GTC events being held this year in Silicon Valley, Beijing, Munich and Taipei, among other locations.

It's an appropriate location for the 2,000th Inception member company. Israel is said to have the highest density of startups of any nation - with an estimated 4,000-5,000 new companies in a nation of 8.5 million people. Nearly 70 of them are in our Inception program, including Deep Instinct, which deploys AI for cybersecurity; Zebra Medical Vision, which uses AI to automate medical image diagnosis; and AIdoc, which uses AI to speed radiologists' workflows.

Imagry uses AI to help enable cars to drive autonomously. Its CEO, Adham Ghazali, said that being an Inception member will help accelerate the company's ability to access NVIDIA's deep learning hardware, software and partner ecosystem.

GTC Israel - which is being attended by more than 1,000 developers, company execs and entrepreneurs - features a keynote by NVIDIA CEO and founder Jensen Huang, and more than 40 talks on AI and other topics.

Its Inception Awards will shine a spotlight on the best young companies in AI. Six finalists from scores of competitors will face off and pitch their companies to a live audience of VCs and executives, as well as a panel of judges.

We'll announce the winners - who get to take home an NVIDIA DGX Station personal AI supercomputer worth $69,000 - this evening.

Since the Inception program began in June 2016, companies have been signing up in droves. Among its benefits are:

• NVIDIA deep learning technologies - Early access to the latest GPU hardware, as well as the NVIDIA Deep Learning SDK, the NVIDIA DIGITS deep learning GPU training system and the NVIDIA GPU Inference Engine.
• Deep learning expertise - Access to NVIDIA's deep learning experts and world-class engineering teams. These teams include computational mathematicians who specialize in designing algorithms for GPU-accelerated computing platforms.
• A global network - Customers, partners and suppliers spanning the globe, as well as NVIDIA's marketing reach.
• Technical training - Online and in-person courses are available via the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute.

Companies interested in joining can learn more and apply on the Inception program website.