Appointment of Dr James Hensman positions PROWLER.io team as the strongest pool of AI talent for autonomous decision making across the globe

Cambridge, UK, 2 March 2017 – Research-led artificial intelligence (AI) company PROWLER.io has grown its Cambridge-based team, with the appointment of new senior machine learning scientist Dr James Hensman.

Dr Hensman, who was most recently a lecturer at the University of Lancaster, has more than 35 published academic journal articles to his name, based on his industry-defining research on Gaussian processes.

PROWLER.io is the world’s first enterprise to focus exclusively on autonomous-decision making using AI. This approach moves away from the use of limited decision trees for AI, which are based on ‘if X then Y principles’, to focusing on the development of self-learning, autonomous agents. These can be applied to a whole variety of problems from autonomous vehicle control, to non-player characters in video games, to smart city simulations.

In joining PROWLER.io, Dr Hensman firmly cements PROWLER.io’s position as a leader in AI, offering the “strongest pool of AI talent for autonomous decision making,” as stated by Hermann Hauser, co-founder of PROWLER.io investor, Amadeus Capital Partners.

PROWLER.io is the only company in the world to encompass the following four rare technical capabilities, which combined will define a new era of AI and robotics:

1) Gaussian processes: the ability for agents to make fast, accurate decisions, based on sparse data
2) Reinforcement learning: the ability for agents to engage in long-term planning, based on their experience and learning
3) Inverse reinforcement learning: the ability to use past data to infer future predictions
4) Multi-agent behaviour: the ability for agents to learn how to interact with humans and other agents

Dr Hensman’s unique expertise in Gaussian processes is in-demand from research institutions and commercial enterprises across the globe, but after a nine-year career in academia, his position at PROWLER.io marks his first full-time role in a commercial capacity. Dr Hensman will be encouraged to continue his academic research while at PROWLER.io – and his findings will support the development of world-leading AI technology.

“Until now I’ve had no interest in departing from full-time academia,” explained Dr James Hensman. “But when I met with the PROWLER.io team, I knew immediately that this was unlike any other company I’d spoken to before. The skills across the team are unmatched and the buzz around developing something that is truly revolutionary was too exciting an opportunity to turn down.”

Vishal Chatrath, CEO, PROWLER.io commented: “There are very few people in the world with the unique skills required to create world-leading AI technology and I’m proud to say we have an impressive number of them under one roof here at PROWLER.io. James’ expertise is invaluable to us and his continuing academic research will further support our work as we create AI.”

Eileen Burbidge, Partner at Passion Capital and PROWLER.io non-executive director, added: “The unparalleled experience and strong research base in the team was what initially led us to invest in PROWLER.io. Since then, the team has been even further boosted by some of the best artificial intelligence talent in the world. With these skills in place, my partners and I at Passion have no doubt PROWLER.io will continue to make pioneering breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and apply these to an almost limitless number of use cases.”

About PROWLER.io
A research-led, Cambridge-based start-up, PROWLER.io is the world’s first enterprise to focus exclusively on autonomous-decision making using AI. This moves away from limited decision trees for AI, which are based on ‘if X then Y principles’, to focusing on the development of self-learning, autonomous agents. PROWLER.io’s highly experienced team of researchers and engineers are building AI agents, based on the principals of reinforcement learning, combined with multi-agent behaviour and Gaussian processes, to define the next generation of AI.

About Amadeus Capital Partners
Amadeus Capital Partners is a global technology investor. Since 1997, the firm has backed more than 120 companies and raised over $1bn for investment.

With vast experience and a great network, Amadeus Capital’s team of investors and entrepreneurs share a passion for the transformative power of technology. We invest in consumer services, financial technology, artificial intelligence, cyber security, medical technology, digital health and digital media.

Early stage investments we’ve made include genomic research data collaboration platform Repositive, massively parallel simulation platform Improbable.io, Graphcore, innovators in intelligent microprocessors, and speech recognition company VocalIQ.

To learn more visit https://amadeuscapital.com or follow us at @AmadeusCapital

About Passion Capital
Passion Capital is the pre-eminent seed-stage VC fund based in London. Founded in 2011 by general partners Eileen Burbidge, Robert Dighero and Stefan Glaenzer, the team invests across all sectors of internet and digital technology and innovation. The firm prides itself on backing the most ambitious and capable founders, and operating with transparency, time efficiency and respect for entrepreneurs. It publishes its standard term sheet and full investment documents on its website, yearly infographics with fully transparent fund data and was the first in the world to publish and use a plain English term sheet.

For more information, please visit www.passioncapital.com and @passioncapital