The artificial intelligence industry has attracted a lot of investments over the past few years. 2016 Has been a rather spectacular year in this regard, with multiple mega-deals coming to fruition between January and December. It is evident there is a growing interest in this sector by venture capitalists and other investors, as it is one area where a lot of progress can be made with the right amount of funding. Below is a list of AI companies who secured the most funding as of 2016.

Although the company name may not necessarily resemble a presence in artificial intelligence, VCs look at Flatiron health as one of the unicorns in this industry right now. The company focuses on bringing artificial intelligence solutions to cancer care providers and life science companies. Through a web-based platform, these AI solutions can be put to good use in the healthcare sector.

The year 2016 has proven to be quite successful for Flatiron Health, as the company has raised a total of US$313m as of January 6, 2016. That is a lot more than some of its closest competitors, indicating Flatiron Health has something investors seem to have taken a liking to. It will be interesting to see what this company can bring to the AI sector over the next few years, as that large amount of funding must be put to good use.

It does not happen often an AI company can successfully complete a large round of private funding. StackPath is one of the few exceptions in this regard, as they raised US$180m during 2016. Their suite of secure web services gathers information through a machine learning engine that becomes more threat-aware over time. Moreover, the software solution is capable of communicating real-time threats. Considering how the number of cyber security threats continues to grow, it makes a lot of sense to combat these issues with artificial intelligence.

We have briefly touched upon Zoox in an earlier article, as it is one of the hottest AI startups to keep an eye on right now. The objective of bringing artificial intelligence to the auto industry has attracted a lot of attention Venture capitalists also see a lot of merit in this company, which explains how they raised US$200m in Series A funding during 2016. The year 2017 could be a defining year for Zoox, as they will have to keep innovating and impressing investors moving forward.

It is impossible to discuss AI startup funding in 2016 and not mention Gett. This Israeli ride-hailing application will compete with existing solutions, including Uber and Lyft. The company does things differently, though, by using AI algorithms to assist in on-demand car deployment. Moreover, Getts software solution can also be used to power autonomous vehicles in the future.

One has to admit Gett has been doing some impressive work throughout 2016. To date, the company has raised US$613m from investors all over the world, which is quite a high number. In comparison, Lyft has raised US$2bn to date, although that company has been around for a few more years. Gett is available in 60 cities all over the world right now, and powers over half of the black cabs in London, England.

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Top 4 AI Companies With Over US$100m in Funding During 2016 - The Merkle