Why We Invested in Linear Logic: Advancing AI Development
At ASIF Ventures, we firmly believe in the power of young minds to bring about revolutionary change. Our investment thesis revolves around backing brilliant students and recent graduates in the Amsterdam Metropolitan area, providing them with the capital, mentorship, and opportunities to scale their innovative ideas into transformative businesses.
We're excited to announce our latest investment in Linear Logic, an enterprise-grade data platform for building and deploying AI systems with a bold focus on AI explainability. Linear Logic embodies the principles we hold dear: forward-thinking innovation, a disruptive vision, and an unwavering commitment to solving complex, impactful problems. Here's why we decided to back Linear Logic.
The Founding Team
Miguel Pieters and Luc Wentholt, the co-founders of Linear Logic, have known each other since their childhood and share a deep rooted connection that has been instrumental in forging a strong and effective partnership at the helm. Miguel, with his deep understanding of AI and data science, drives the tech of Linear Logic and is able to craft state of the art solutions that address critical pain points in the industry. Luc, on the other hand, comes in with a wealth of experience on the finance and operations side, and is able to effectively streamline operational aspects of the business. Miguel’s tech vision coupled with Luc’s ability to translate that into practical, value-driven applications enables them to achieve an exceptional equilibrium at this stage.
The drive and ingenuity demonstrated by Miguel, Luc, and the rest of the Linear Logic team exemplify the kind of entrepreneurial spirit we aim to foster at ASIF Ventures. As early stage investors, we are not just investing in a product or service; we are first and foremost investing in people. It is clear that the Linear Logic team has the passion, dedication, and talent to redefine the AI landscape.
A Visionary Solution
In the rapidly growing field of AI, one of the most complex and time-consuming challenges is managing large amounts of data for deep learning purposes. Traditional processes have typically been labor-intensive, costly, and often fraught with inefficiencies. These issues only intensify as projects grow and data sources multiply, creating what Linear Logic terms a 'data whirlpool' - where projects become unsustainable due to increasing complexity, resource drain, and unmanageable workflows, leading to governance issues.
This is where Linear Logic comes in. Leveraging AI-assisted technology, Linear Logic provides a robust, streamlined solution for data management, quality control, and AI deployment. Their product suite includes a sophisticated, enterprise-grade platform to structure data, thereby preventing 'data whirlpools' and promoting agile, efficient project development.
A critical component of Linear Logic’s platform is their data layer. By introducing a managed data layer that acts as an intermediary between various data sources and projects, Linear Logic ensures this layer is persistently state-aware and can be tracked across multiple versions over time. This promotes agile experimentation while simultaneously moving projects toward production - a groundbreaking approach that optimizes both efficiency and effectiveness.
Furthermore, Linear Logic's data platform introduces an innovative feature called datasets, where engineers bring together their data, labels, and model predictions, providing a unique space to assess model performance and alignment with ground truth data. This capability not only makes it easier to detect bias and fine-tune model hyperparameters but also enhances understanding of why models make certain predictions.
Complementing this, Linear Logic's data merger allows data ingestion and creation of version checkpoints to track which data partitions led to specific results. As data comes in, the merger function not only processes and organizes it, but also creates checkpoints tied to different versions of the data.Think of these checkpoints as milestones or markers. Each one represents a specific version of the data at a given point in time. These checkpoints provide a way to track the evolution of data, allowing users to see how different partitions (subsets) of the data contribute to the final results. For instance, let's imagine a scenario where a machine learning model is trained and then updated several times. Each update modifies the model based on a new set of data. By creating a checkpoint for each update, users can track back and see exactly what data led to each version of the model. This can be crucial for understanding how the model evolved over time, how certain data influenced its performance, and for ensuring the reproducibility of results. This tracking mechanism enhances transparency and control, helping users to understand, manage, and optimize their AI models more effectively, thereby avoiding a data whirlpool type situation.
Lastly, Linear Logic addresses the industry's lack of a universal standard for versioning deep tech data. Inspired by Git and Docker, they offer a dataset:version pair to track the versioning of the data. Every data operation made within Linear Logic automatically supports versioning, sharing, and clear linkage between steps and datasets. This simplifies the complex process of data versioning, bringing clarity and structure to a traditionally challenging area.
Linear Logic is also currently rolling out Darwin, a cutting-edge location intelligence solution for applying AI in corporate businesses. Darwin is specifically designed to provide actionable insights, enabling executives to understand, plan, and act within minutes instead of weeks. Harnessing the power of AI, Darwin effortlessly processes and comprehends vast volumes of structured and unstructured data. With its natural language understanding capabilities, operators and analysts can interact with Darwin for real-time insights. Furthermore, Darwin seamlessly integrates with Linear Logic's Data Engine, enabling data storage, visualization, and generation of concise summary reports. This fusion of capabilities amplifies staff productivity, maximizing bandwidth for more efficient business development. With its widespread adoption across industries such as agriculture, infrastructure, and maritime, Darwin is revolutionizing how organizations harness AI.
By offering a cost-effective, efficient, and agile solution to deep learning data management and by democratizing AI, Linear Logic disrupts the traditional approach and positions itself as a driver in the AI landscape. This aligns perfectly with ASIF Ventures’ passion for investing in young entrepreneurs with groundbreaking tech-driven solutions - we are confident that their solution will not only address current market needs but also shape the future of the AI and machine learning industry.
Focus On Strategic Innovation
Linear Logic’s philosophy hinges on three fundamental pillars:
A bold strategy on Iterative development: Linear Logic acknowledges that few ideas work flawlessly on the first try and that Innovation necessitates a process of iteration, learning, and refining. In line with this understanding, they are building systems designed to facilitate an agile workflow. This approach supports continuous improvement and adaptation, enabling their product to evolve with the changing needs of users and advancements in technology.
From zero to automation in under an hour: Recognizing the need for efficiency in AI application development, Linear Logic has engineered sophisticated workflows that promote quick automation. They achieve this by replacing traditional data silos with a comprehensive data fabric. This shift streamlines data management, simplifying the process and allowing developers to automate systems rapidly.
Managing the entire ML lifecycle: Linear Logic's platform empowers users to oversee the complete machine learning process, from ideation and development to deployment and refinement. The flexible pay-as-you-go model and absence of DevOps-related overheads further reduce operational complexity, enabling users to focus their energies on innovation rather than administration.
Alignment with Our Investment Thesis
Despite our broad, sector-agnostic investment scope at ASIF, we are selective in our backing of startups, seeking out those with the potential to bring about significant change in their respective sectors. Linear Logic’s mission to accelerate AI development holds great promise in revolutionizing how businesses manage and work with data, regardless of the sector they operate in. We believe in backing startups that are not afraid of experimentation, and who see challenges as opportunities for growth and learning, and Linear Logic perfectly embodies this philosophy. They are focused on continuously iterating to innovate, treating each challenge as a chance to develop and refine their offering. This commitment to solving complex issues in the data management and ML space highlights their willingness to confront challenges head-on and underscores their potential for exponential growth and impact.
Additionally, as a student-focused VC, we were impressed by Linear Logic's origin story. Born out of the need to efficiently complete university assignments, this platform represents the kind of transformative, student-led innovation we aim to support.
The Future
The future of AI and ML is vast, and Linear Logic is on track to play a critical role in shaping it. By providing an efficient, cost-effective solution for managing and deploying AI systems, Linear Logic opens up possibilities for companies of all sizes and sectors to leverage the power of AI. Linear Logic’s focus on iterative improvement resonates deeply with us at ASIF Ventures.
With Linear Logic, we are not just investing in a promising startup. We’re backing a powerful vision for the future, a dedicated team, and an innovative solution that aligns perfectly with our commitment to fostering young entrepreneurship and technological advancement. We at ASIF Ventures are excited about the future of Linear Logic and look forward to supporting them in their journey ahead!
ASIF board members Joris Koch and Akanksha Menon signing the Linear Logic investment with co-founders Miguel Pieters and Luc Wentholt.