Last year was a time of excitement in the machine learning arena as a growing number of startups closed huge funding rounds in 2022. Emerging companies have implemented machine learning solutions to solve administrative and operational hurdles businesses encounter every day. While many machine learning products remain conceptual, machine learning tools are increasingly being adopted by companies worldwide. A number of machine learning companies entered their fourth or even fifth series of funding deals in 2022 and we are starting to see more tangible products, driven by machine learning algorithms, enter the market. With that in mind, let's look at the 10 biggest funding rounds achieved in the machine learning space in 2022, according to research firm GlobalData.

Avidbots Corp., which makes commercial floor-scrubbing robots, said it has raised US$70-million in new equity, marking one of the biggest financing rounds for a Canadian startup in recent months as the tech sector grapples with a prolonged downturn. Jeneration Capital, which has offices in Hong Kong and Beijing, led the round, which Avidbots said Tuesday brought its total venture financing to US$107-million to date. Numerous existing investors including BDC Capital, Golden Ventures and Kensington Capital Partners returned for the financing round, as did new investors such as BMO Capital Partners. Founded in 2014, Avidbots has focused its robotics efforts on a suite of floor-cleaning robots called Neo. The Kitchener, Ont.-based company says more than 1,000 have been sold worldwide in more than a dozen countries for clients in sectors such as warehousing, health care and manufacturing.

The leading company in the AR contact lens space - Mojo Vision - has developed a working prototype with very advanced features. The Mojo contact lens overlays digital information onto your field of vision and provides information to you directly through the lens so that you don't have to look away at an external object like a phone, sign, or map. The team at Mojo Lens have developed a working prototype and they are testing use cases. This is a big step closer to AR. Mojo Vision was founded in 2015 in Silicon Valley. The company has raised $204 million from top investors including Khosla Ventures, Motorola, LG, Amazon's Alexa Fund, Stanford's StartX Fund, HP Tech Ventures, 8VC, Bold Capital Partners, Gradient Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Advan Tech, Dolby Family Ventures, Edge, Fusion Fund, HiJoJo Partners, InFocus Capital Partners, Kakao Ventures, NEA, Numbase, TDK Ventures, Open Field Capital, and Liberty Global.

Total technology industry artificial intelligence deals worth $9.6bn were announced globally for February 2022, with the $2.58bn private equity deal with Informa being the sector's biggest investment, according to GlobalData's deals database. Copy and paste the image source into your website to display the chart. The value marked an increase of 44.2% over the previous month of $6.63bn and a rise of 8.3% when compared with the last 12-month average of $8.83bn. In terms of number of artificial intelligence deals, the sector saw a drop of 7.28% with 280 deals in February 2022 when compared to the last 12-month average of 302 deals. In value terms, North America led the activity with artificial intelligence deals worth $4.15bn in February 2022.

Sometimes, two things just go together, such as peanut butter and jelly or, in the case of Boston-based startup Predilytics, machine learning and health care. The company announced on Tuesday afternoon it has closed a $6 million Series A round with investment from Flybridge Capital Partners, Highland Capital Partners and Google Ventures. It's not the first application of big data to health care, and it certainly won't be the last, but it's application of machine learning to health care providers' administrative data might be unique. As we've reported before, health care is a major focus for big data companies and data scientists because there's so much data involved and the problems are so heavy. The right analytic tools could end up saving lives or saving billions of dollars in an industry where just about everyone agrees that costs are out of control.

The tech sphere is showering money recently. For the past two decades, artificial intelligence was encountering significant growth across many domains. But thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, the adoption was further accelerated. The sudden surge in disruptive technologies' usage has eventually opened the door for investments in artificial intelligence. Investors are also looking to back AI companies that will one day flourish like Apple, Google, Netflix, Amazon, etc. Artificial intelligence is an umbrella term that covers many topics including machine learning, data analytics, data science, natural language processing, etc.

Account engagement startup 6Sense today announced that it closed a $125 million series D funding round led by D1 Capital Partners, valuing the company at $2.1 billion post-money. Business-to-business buyers are typically 57% of the way to a buying decision before they engage with sales departments. Moreover, only 23% of executives are confident in the speed at which they're gaining accurate insights. Motivated by the idea that AI might have a role to play in helping seal the deal, five entrepreneurs -- Amanda Kahlow, Dustin Chang, Premal Shah, Shane Moriah, and Viral Bajaria -- cofounded 6Sense in 2013. The platform also triggers marketing communications through apps like Marketo and Eloqua in response to sales prospects' demands. Moreover, it enables salespeople to engage with buying teams via multichannel, multitouch campaigns.

Recently, I've curated a list of 50 Finnish startups in the field of AI & Machine Learning for those who are looking for business partners or companies to invest in. If you are an international investor who wants to connect with one of the startups, feel free to drop me a message. I can make the intro and provide the companies' investor pitch deck to you if it is available. You can also use Finder.fi to check the company's revenue development. If you are an ambitious entrepreneur (based in Finland) who is working on the next world-changing idea and is looking for funding, let's meet! I'll be happy to discuss how we can help you with the fundraising process (for free). Most of the following information is from the company website. But if you've spotted an error, please let me know and I will revise accordingly. "AISpotter has developed a time-saving, fast service for coaches all around the world. Our goal is to combine high-end technology and sports of any kind. With real-time analysis, coaches and teams are given the power to be one step ahead in team development." "We've taken over 30 years of recognized University of Oulu Machine Vision Group technology and adapted it to improve your sports game. By combining state-of-the-art machine learning and computer vision in our unique way, we provide automatic and fast analysis service for your game."

SparkCognition, a global artificial intelligence (AI) leader that builds AI technology to advance the most important interests of society, announced the close of its Series C funding of $100 million led by March Capital Partners. With overall funding of $175 million since its inception in 2013, SparkCognition is now one of the most valuable startups in Texas and one of the most valuable AI startups in the United States. "In a short few years, SparkCognition has proven itself to be one of the leading industrial AI companies in the world," said Sumant Mandal, Managing Director and co-founder of March Capital Partners. "We are proud to lead their Series C round, and look forward to working closely with the company to drive its success even further." SparkCognition builds AI technology for industrial applications–revolutionizing the way industries like oil and gas, defense, utilities, aviation, and financial services manage such critical functions as efficiency and safety.

Forter, a company that uses machine learning to detect and prevent fraud in online retail transactions, announced today that it has raised $50 million in a series D funding round led by March Capital Partners, bringing its total financing to $100 million. Salesforce Ventures joined the round, along with previous investors including Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Global online retail sales amounted to more than $2 trillion in 2017, and this number is projected to reach more than $4.5 billion by 2021. But as online retail grows, so does online fraud. Account takeover attacks are on the rise, as are high-volume automated "bot" attacks and so-called policy attacks like coupon abuse.