Iris.ai raises EUR €7.64m to boost R&D with AI-driven tech

Iris.ai, a company focused on AI-driven scientific research, has secured EUR €7.64 million in Series A funding to develop its RSpace platform aimed at enhancing R&D productivity.

The Oslo-based firm is striving to resolve a significant issue faced by research and development teams: unlocking "Deep Knowledge" contained within historical research data. Iris.ai defines Deep Knowledge as the complex, interconnected insights that extend beyond surface information and include the relationships between concepts, methodologies, and findings that have evolved over time.

This untapped potential within an organisation's historical R&D work represents a competitive advantage for commercial entities. Companies often possess decades of research data, technical documentation, and internal reports, all of which potentially contain valuable insights. By effectively mining this Deep Knowledge, organisations can identify new applications for existing technologies and uncover overlooked commercial opportunities from past research. This approach can prevent costly redundancies and avoid reinvestment into previously solved problems or unfruitful paths.

At the heart of Iris.ai's offering is a suite of AI-powered tools developed over nine years of research and development. The suite includes the newly launched RSpace platform, which utilises natural language processing (NLP) and machine vision to extract and organise knowledge from extensive internal repositories. This technological advancement transforms large volumes of unstructured data into actionable insights, making it easier for researchers to access relevant information.

"This journey of innovation hasn't been overnight — it's taken years of dedicated research to reach this point," said Anita Schjøll Abildgaard, CEO of Iris.ai. "We've seen R&D teams repeatedly struggle with the same issue: they have all the knowledge they need, but it's locked away in disparate, unstructured formats. We always expected the AI technology landscape to develop in the way it has, so we've built the perfect foundation to leverage all the most recent breakthroughs."

According to a study by Iris.ai, the challenge of managing overwhelming data is widespread. Out of 500 research professionals surveyed, 66% reported feeling overwhelmed by the volume of published research they must review. Scientific papers, patents, internal reports, and regulatory specifications are often scattered across various formats, complicating efforts to access the insights needed to drive innovation.

With Iris.ai's solutions, R&D professionals can now manage and transform this data more effectively. This empowers them to focus on generating new insights, thus accelerating their projects. "With the support of our investors and the dedication of our team, we've created AI tools that make it faster and easier for research teams to access the knowledge buried in their data and apply it innovatively," Abildgaard added. "By putting deep knowledge at researchers' fingertips, we're enabling them to drive breakthroughs that can have real-world impact."