ASI Raises $3 Million in Funding After Securing Additional Investment from GSV Ventures
ASI (formerly DigestAI), an emerging company in the field of educational technology based in the UAE, secured funding of $3 million after receiving additional investment from GSV Ventures in December.
Last November, the Ministry of Education in the UAE announced a partnership with ASI to develop an AI-powered tutor. This collaboration was initiated due to the notable success of the leading Emirati technology company in developing AI-based tutoring solutions.
This aligns with the ministry’s initiative to integrate artificial intelligence into the local education sector and enhance the system, as declared during last year’s World Government Summit. A trial version of the tutor platform was unveiled in December.
The emergence of AI-powered tutors is deemed to play a crucial role in integrating the roles of teachers with artificial intelligence, stated Dr. Ahmad Al Falasi, the Minister of Education for the UAE.
Quddus Pativada, the founder and CEO of ASI
Quddus Pativada, the founder and CEO of ASI, stated, “We look forward to expanding our collaboration with the ministry, which has a forward-looking vision regarding artificial intelligence and its specific use in education. This is significantly different from what we are witnessing at both the national and international levels.”
He added, “There were major companies approaching us in this regard, but we declined offers from all of them. I believe our reputation among corporate development teams now is that we are not for sale; we are mission-driven. We want to achieve that mission, and we don’t believe that mission is possible in traditional institutions. I think it requires a new way of looking at things.”
ASI has raised over $3 million from investors in the UAE and the United States, including the American GSV Ventures, the AI company Character, and the billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, who has also taken on the role of adviser for ASI. Several angel investors and smaller funds have also contributed.
About ASI
ASI, formerly known as DigestAI, is a platform built on a massive language model founded by Quddus Pativada in 2017, just six weeks before his eighteenth birthday – and about five years before ChatGPT and artificial intelligence became a popular topic, captivating the world.
However, the roots extend further back. At the age of fourteen, he dreamt of having something – anything – that could summarize his textbooks.
“When we started the company, artificial intelligence wasn’t a thing. From the beginning, we’ve always been an AI company, but we could have just capitalized on the hype itself,” says Quddus Pativada.
But the inspiration came more from what he describes as “disparities in education,” with the most glaring example being the notion that only students in top schools have access to the best teachers.
Quddus Pativada believes that artificial intelligence can help level the playing field, or, in this case, the studying field.
