Cost savings of up to £30M were identified on Network Rail's Great Western project through use of machine learning and wider construction industry benefits are set to be unlocked by a new investment from a Google venture business. Network Rail leveraged the savings by using construction risk forecasting platform nPlan, which has just been boosted by a £13.5M investment from GV (formerly Google Ventures). According to nPlan, wider use of machine learning that this investment will support could save the global construction sector almost £730bn each year through spotting delays and recommending improvements with an accuracy and scale previously not possible. The firm has said that such data-led insights would effectively reduce the volatility of and increase investor confidence in construction projects. By using some of the most powerful machine learning capabilities in the world to analyse what worked and what didn't in past projects, we can help our customers work out what's going to derail their own initiatives, and stop problems happening before they even appear." Speaking about the due diligence undertaken by GV ahead of the investment, GV general partner Tom Hulme said that he was "blown away" by the benefits organisations such as Network Rail saw in applying modern machine learning techniques to such a difficult analogue problem".

The company's proprietary AI algorithms have analysed nearly $1 trillion worth of global construction projects and deploys this learning to spot delays and recommend improvements with an accuracy and scale previously not possible. In doing so, nPlan's data-led insights effectively reduce the volatility of and increase investor confidence in construction projects. There continues to be a significant global appetite for major infrastructure projects, both in the immediate boost they provide to jobs and construction companies' revenues, and the ongoing economic impact they can have on regions and even whole countries. According to recent data from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, 'In the last quarter of 2020, before the latest lockdowns, construction industry workloads increased for the first time since 2019. Further to this, 2020 saw a seven month period of increased activity and expansion within the UK construction sector.

Aiden.ai - Founded in 2016, Aiden.ai is an AI powered virtual marketing analyst to enable mobile app marketers to focus on what matters most. Aiden has raised a total of $2.4m to date over 2 rounds. The latest funding came from a Seed round announced in November 2018, led by Partech along with angels Sophia Bendz and Nicolas Pinto. The company was co-founded by CEO Marie Outtier, who has 8 years of ad tech startup experience, and CTO PJ Camillieri, who previously spent 10 years at Apple. Auquan - Recently graduated from Techstars London, Auquan is a platform to crowdsource data-driven trading strategies from a community of data scientists, developers, and machine learning engineers.

Aiden - Founded in 2016, Aiden is an AI powered virtual marketing analyst to enable mobile app marketers to focus on what matters most. Aiden uses machine reading to analyse campaign data and offers one-click optimisation to proactively make changes to improve ROI and streamline reporting. Aiden has raised a total of $2.4m to date over 2 rounds. The latest funding came from a Seed round announced in November 2018, led by Partech along with angels Sophia Bendz and Nicolas Pinto. The company was co-founded by CEO Marie Outtier, who has 8 years of ad tech startup experience, and CTO PJ Camillieri, who previously spent 10 years at Apple.

Entrepreneur First (EF), the company builder and "talent first" investor, held its ninth London Demo Day this afternoon. Once again, the pitches took place in front of a packed crowd at King's Place in London's King Cross area, seeing 19 startups pitch their wares to investors, press and other actors in the European tech scene. EF stands out from the plethora of demo days that the U.K. capital city hosts because of the way the investor backs individuals "pre-team, pre-idea" -- meaning that the companies pitching only came into existence over the last 6 months and perhaps may never have done so without the founders entering the programme. As is now a tradition, prior to the pitches, EF co-founder Matt Clifford took the chance to announce some EF news of its own. Already operating in London, Singapore and Berlin, the company builder -- which last year picked up backing in a $12.4 million round led by Silicon Valley's Greylock Partners -- is expanding to Hong Kong to double down on its Asia ambitions, kicking off with a local programme in July.