‘Tatau' is the word on many international tech investors' lips – and all because of a unique approach to blockchain and AI.
Tatau is a supplier to the world's first blockchain-based supercomputer for artificial intelligence. The company has scored four international awards in just a few short weeks – a feat that has got many people talking.
Tatau won the Malta Blockchain Summit pitch competition, the Spark Early Stage Companies awards at the Technology Investment Network (TIN) Awards in Auckland, the Startup World Cup Regional Finals — UAE and The Grand Slam Pitch Competition.
Tatau sources compute supply from existing GPU hardware, which is generally found in cryptomining and gaming infrastructure data centers.
Tatau says this method removes the financial and environmental costs of building and maintaining new data centers.
Tatau cofounder and CEO Andrew Fraser says there has been a lot of capital deployment to build GPU data centers for activities like cryptomining.
“However, the returns from mining are not meeting expected and necessary hurdle rates and miners are seeking alternative revenue streams and higher yields. Tatau is able to provide them with that.
He adds that by using existing resources, Tatau can provide cost-effective supercomputing to AI firms.
“In short, Tatau is unleashing AI innovation 1,000 GPUs at a time,” says Fraser.
“We've known since day one that Tatau has a significant and timely market opportunity and that our team is well-placed to execute on that – to have repeat validation from global experts as a stand-out opportunity is hugely motivating for the team,” says Tatau cofounder Martyn Levy.
The awards also place the company as a contender and investment opportunity for blockchain experts and tech investors from the Middle East to Europe.
"Being selected in first place by a panel of European-based investors represents strong validation of Tatau's business model and market opportunity as well as recognition of the team and the progress to date with product and customers," Levy continues.
Tatau is currently conducting a private pre-sale/Series A funding round. It successfully conducted an oversubscribed US$1.5 million seed funding round in April 2018.
The company launched its supercomputing platform only a few months ago, in August 2018.
Its first customer, NZ-based ‘virtual human' and AI chatbot FaceMe, has also seen success on the international stage.
Tatau says it is in discussions with strategic investors and plans to release a beta version of its platform early next year.
The company's first commercial release is slated for June 2019.