Intel Capital Boosts TrueFoundry with $19M to Scale AI Deployments

TrueFoundry, a startup founded by former Meta engineers, has successfully secured $19 million in a new funding round led by Intel Capital. This innovative company is dedicated to helping enterprises scale their AI systems efficiently, a challenge that has become increasingly relevant with the rise of generative AI (GenAI) since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.

The emergence of GenAI has prompted businesses of all sizes to explore AI integration, but the technology's reliance on large language models necessitates substantial computing power. Not every enterprise has access to numerous GPUs, making GPU optimization crucial. Additionally, companies must experiment with various models to identify the most suitable one for their needs and fine-tune them to enhance relevance to their operations.

TrueFoundry tackles these issues through its platform-as-a-service model, specifically designed for full-stack data scientists. The platform offers features like auto-scaling, proactive maintenance, centralized access controls, and real-time monitoring, streamlining the entire AI deployment process.

Launched in June 2021 by Nikunj Bajaj, Abhishek Choudhary, and Anuraag Gutgutia—all former Meta engineers and IIT Kharagpur alumni—TrueFoundry initially focused on accelerating machine learning deployments across different cloud environments. As GenAI gained popularity in 2023, the startup adapted its system to include support for GenAI capabilities.

“In the past, data scientists were limited to working with models and experimenting. The actual deployment was typically handed off to ML engineers. With our system, we empower data scientists to build and test these complex systems at scale themselves before passing them to the platform team for final deployment,” Gutgutia explained in an exclusive interview.

The startup’s flagship product is an autopilot system that uses AI to analyze logs and metrics, helping to scale AI applications by optimizing GPU usage and managing memory requirements. Gutgutia shared with TechCrunch that one of TrueFoundry’s clients, operating with just a two-person team, managed to handle 10 million requests per second using this system.

TrueFoundry boasts 30 paid customers globally, along with numerous users leveraging its open-source RAG framework for experimentation. Among its clients, Nvidia employs TrueFoundry's software to optimize its GPU clusters, while ResMed uses it to build an internal AI platform. Other notable customers include Siemens Healthineers, Automation Anywhere, Games24x7, and Whatfix.

The software is built on Kubernetes, ensuring compatibility with major cloud platforms like AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Azure, and can also be deployed on-premise. Enterprises using TrueFoundry have reported building and launching their internal AI platforms in just two months, achieving ROI in four months, significantly faster than the industry average of 14 months. Bajaj noted that customers have seen a 40-50% reduction in infrastructure costs and a 10x improvement in deployment speed.

While cloud vendors like Amazon and Google have introduced their own AI deployment solutions such as SageMaker and Vertex, Gutgutia emphasized to TechCrunch that TrueFoundry remains essential. It accelerates the utilization of compute resources for cloud providers, speeds up AI app time-to-market, and reduces overall costs.

The Series A funding round, which was entirely equity-based, saw participation from Eniac Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Jump Capital, and angel investors including Gokul Rajaram, Mohit Aron, and Cyan Banister.

TrueFoundry plans to use the funds to expand its team from 45 members in India to include go-to-market positions in the U.S., such as sales, customer success, and product marketing. The company also aims to strengthen partnerships, particularly with cloud vendors, and is working on getting listed in key cloud marketplaces, starting with the AWS Marketplace.

Moreover, TrueFoundry is set to launch an AI agent that will help suggest appropriate resources, enable auto-scaling, and assist with troubleshooting.

With this latest round, TrueFoundry has raised over $21 million in total, including a $2.3 million seed round in September 2022 led by Peak XV’s (then Sequoia India) Surge. The startup quadrupled its customer base last year and deployed over 1,000 clusters for ML workloads. Gutgutia revealed to TechCrunch that TrueFoundry's annual recurring revenue is over $1.5 million, with plans to double this figure in the coming year.