Warsaw-based startup Applica raises Series A funding to provide AI-based robotic solution to assist and replace the human workforce in a text-based work

Applica, an artificial intelligence startup that help companies to extract actionable information from unstructured and semi-structured documents using its proprietary AI platform, announced today it has closed undisclosed amount in Series A funding round led by Cogito Capital Partners, with participation of Barclays.

Founded in 2013 by Adam Dancewicz and Piotr Surma, Applica provides AI-based robotic text automation solutions for enterprises. Applica’s proprietary AI automates text-intensive work by extracting meaning from unstructured and semi-structured documents, regardless of language or layout; it is rapidly trained to new use-cases by non-experts with a minimum of customer data and continually self-learns from interactions with end users.  The Applica team consists of over 40 deep learning experts, mathematicians, data scientists, linguists, and software engineers – with over half of them holding a PhD.

Applica’s customers use Applica’s platform to extract actionable information from large volumes of unstructured and semi-structured documents such as regulatory financial filings, earnings call transcripts, commercial contracts or court rulings. Applica’s platform is often implemented together with robotic process automation (RPA) solutions that automate workflows in enterprises. The company is a global technology partner of the leading RPA platform vendors.

“Applica is on a mission to free knowledge workers from repetitive and text-intensive tasks and let them focus on higher value work. The success of RPA is a stepping stone for powerful AI-based platforms to automate work that requires human-level scrutiny and comprehension of documents,” said Piotr Surma, CEO of Applica. “The financial backing and domain expertise of Cogito and Barclays will help us execute our strategy and strengthen Applica’s presence in the US market.”

The undisclosed amount of funding will be used by the company to fuel its further global expansion. The Cogito team will support Applica in building out key go-to-market partnerships, with particular focus on the US market. Barclays has been an early supporter of Applica through the Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars; Applica participated in the 2018 New York cohort.

“We are excited about Applica’s prospects and impressed with the quality and scalability of the platform they’ve developed. Their ability to extract meaning from unstructured text in large volumes of documents is clearly market leading, as demonstrated by a number of recent high-value customer wins,” said Martin Jasinski, Cogito’s General Partner.

“During Applica’s participation in the Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars, we were impressed by Applica’s ability to build cutting-edge and commercially impactful AI-based tools,” said Kester Keating, Head of US Strategic Investments at Barclays. “Through this Series A funding, we are pleased to support Applica’s further development, and look forward to working with them as they address the huge market opportunity around RPA with new partnerships and products.”