Katapult develops AI to evaluate early stage startups
After several years and multiple attempts, Katapult and former CTO Sagar Chandna are again asking the game-changing question: can AI be used to supplement or even replace an early-stage startup investor’s gut feeling? This time, backed by EU funding.
The project received support in 2020 from Regional Forskningsfond Oslo (who published this article about Katapult’s project led by Sagar Chandna and Niels Brøgger). Now, Seedstars and Bakken & Bæck have signed on as partners and the EU’s Eurostars research program is funding the project with €1 million.
“…what [the RFF article] doesn’t mention are the failures we went through, and the partnerships it took, to get us to a new starting point. So I’ve come to a realization that failure or success are never the end of any journey, but just a pit-stop to gather support to keep moving forward, one day at a time.”- Sagar Chandna via LinkedIn
In 2018, Katapult and Chandna set out to develop an AI that would make it easier to identify the startups that are the most promising both in terms of monetary investment and positive impact.
As Katapult screens thousands of impact tech startups applying for investment through the accelerator programs each year, this technology could help to sort, identify and analyze startups at a much faster rate and on a larger scale.
The predictive technology will go beyond only financial data, also measuring terms of impact for startups addressing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Katapult will thus be able to determine startups that will make a lasting, positive impact on the planet and increase the overall investment in impact startups worldwide.
