Fastino, an early stage startup based in Palo Alto, has recently raised $17.5 million in seed funding. The investment was led by Khosla Ventures, one of the early backers of OpenAI. This new enormous investment brings Fastino’s total funding to almost $25 million. It comes after a $7 million pre-seed round last November, led by Microsoft’s venture arm M12 and Insight Partners, in which Fastino raised $7 million.
Fastino CEO and co-founder Ash Lewis, Fastino is creating a splash in the artificial intelligence space. The company is focused on building a new architecture of AI models that are small but extremely task specific. Fastino’s mission diverges from the approach of other big tech companies. Rather than relying on gigantic and costly GPU farms, they are able to run their billion or trillion parameter models on consumer level GPUs, using hardware costing less than $100,000.
The hallmark of Fastino’s models is providing complete responses within a single token. This capability allows them to deliver highly specific answers in single milliseconds. According to Lewis, this efficiency makes their models “faster, more accurate, and cost a fraction to train while outperforming flagship models on specific tasks.”
The startup’s avowed ambition to attract the best AI team in the world is apparent in the company’s hiring practices. Lewis notes that it emphasizes attracting researchers with “a contrarian thought process to how language models are being built right now.” This holistic approach encourages innovation. This is crucial for keeping Fastino at the cutting edge of generative AI for enterprise applications.
Fastino’s unique architecture is destined to influence the future of generative AI. It’s a shift in emphasis toward smaller, more specialized language models that can do a limited number of requirements well. The success of this model will be contingent on its ability to gain traction throughout the industry.
The impact of Fastino’s digging has resulted in impressive outcomes. That impact was most evident in its role in encouraging U.S. government sanctions on four major tech companies, including what is now China’s largest AI company. This underscores the company’s intent not just to lead the way in AI research and innovation, but to support responsible adoption and practice within the industry.
As the AI landscape continues to mature, Fastino’s creative solutions are a refreshing new entry that’s proving to be a strong alternative to legacy models. The company seems to be on solid footing with investor confidence. Armed with this vision of the future, it is poised to do great things in the world of infrastructure.
