Hypergiant Industries, the Texas-based industrial artificial intelligence company, announced Tuesday that it has secured funding from Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, a wholly-owned subsidiary Sumitomo Corp., and Perot Jain, the venture capital arm of the Perot Cos.
Hypergiant said the funding comes a little more than a year after its launch, and will be used to continue its rapid growth in the industrial artificial intelligence sector—expected to generate $13 trillion in global economic activity in 2030, according to a McKinsey report. Hypergiant launched out of stealth in February 2018.
Hypergiant said in a release it’s on track to be one of the fastest tech companies to reach $100 million in realized revenue.
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In its first year, Hypergiant has grown from four employees to more than 130 and reached eight-figure revenue, CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm told Dallas Innovates via email.
Hypergiant said it focuses on industrial applications of artificial intelligence, where early adoption and return on investment have outpaced most other sectors, and which generates a disproportionate amount of AI’s total economic value.
Since its launch in 2018, Hypergiant said it has deployed solutions and products for dozens of customers across the manufacturing, automotive, oil and gas, aerospace, healthcare, and government sectors. Among its first-year clients are oil services giant Schlumberger, General Electric, Bosch, TGI Fridays, Shell, Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energy, and the Department of Homeland Security. The company has signed partnerships with Microsoft, Adobe, SAP, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Nvidia.
“We’re honored that both Sumitomo and Perot chose to invest because of their belief in Hypergiant’s business and technology roadmap. We’ve spoken with them extensively on the future of the company and how we hope to grow, and their investments amount affirm their commitment to supporting that growth in way that we found very encouraging,” Lamm told Dallas Innovates. “We’ll be using this round of funding to drive our next phase of growth through additional expansions in critical infrastructure both domestically and internationally.”
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Lamm, a serial technology entrepreneur, previously was the founder and CEO of Conversable, which was acquired by LivePerson. He also was founder and CEO of Chaotic Moon Studios, acquired by Accenture, and Team Chaos, which was acquired by Zynga.
Lamm told Dallas Innovates the company was proud that, “Sumitomo and Perot Jain want to serve not just as investors, but as true partners in Hypergiant’s continued growth.”
“We will be working together to integrate our technologies across Sumitomo’s 900+ subsidiaries and associated companies, while also offering solutions to Perot Jain’s portfolio companies,” he said. “We’re excited to see how these close working relationships demonstrate the incredible value and power of AI in diverse industries.”
He also said that Dallas’ unique qualities make it a great place for the company to grow.
“We do have an initial Dallas office of around 7,000 square feet, which is really a temporary office that we are using until we can find the right long-term home.” Lamm told Dallas Innovates. “We love that Dallas has both a strong business background as well as an engaged and constantly evolving tech scene. It’s this unique intersection of industry and innovation, best characterized by companies like Perot Jain, that continue to draw us here. For us, it just makes sense for HGI to have a larger presence here, especially as we close this latest round of funding.”
The new partners said they’re excited to be working with Hypergiant.
“As a corporation operating in a wide range of industries at global scale, Sumitomo Corporation Group understands the value of a horizontal approach to artificial intelligence,” Jun Okawara, Senior Vice President, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, said in a statement. “Hypergiant also understands that this approach is essential for industrial applications and has therefore developed solutions that create tremendous value for customers.”
Hypergiant grows in people and places
Perot Jain has made technology investments spanning real estate, mobility, manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare.
“Hypergiant has an opportunity to build a market-dominating company that is fueled by machine intelligent technologies,” Ross Perot Jr., chairman of the Perot Cos., said in a statement. “We backed Ben and his team because they have demonstrated an unbelievable capacity to execute in a very short period of time. We are confident Hypergiant will continue to execute on its vision and be an industry-defining AI company.”
Hypergiant’s growth since its launch has been notable, now having more than 160 people and three offices in Dallas, Austin, and Houston.
Hypergiant Industries has launched three companies under its umbrellas including Hypergiant Space Age Soltuions, Hypergiant Sensory Sciences, and Hypergiant Galactic Systems, as well as completed three acquisitions including SEOPS and Black Pixel.
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