University of Alberta and Former DeepMind Researchers Develop AI Software to Optimize Performance and Improve Reliability in Industrial Control Systems
Funds to be Used to Drive Global Expansion of Cost-Saving and Energy Efficient Solutions
EDMONTON, AB / ACCESSWIRE / December 5, 2024 / RL Core Technologies, (RLCore) has closed a USD $5 million Series Seed funding round led by TQ Ventures, a leading New York-based venture capital fund, with participation from Flying Fish Ventures. RL Core Technologies provides deep learning software which boosts the efficiency and reliability of industrial control systems.
RLCore has proven that its software solutions can lower two of the largest drivers of cost in water treatment- energy and chemical consumption - resulting in increased efficiency, reduced operational expenses, and consistent regulatory compliance. For its customers, RLCore has conducted automatic PID tuning improving flow rate 50% over default, achieved fully automatic chlorine injection allowing for precise dosing and attained a 20% improvement in backwash.
"Our success in the drinking-water treatment industry has shown we can create a competitive advantage for our customers by increasing efficiency and freeing up time-constrained operators to focus on more critical maintenance tasks," said RL Core Technologies CEO Martha White. "We are thrilled to have the support of such esteemed investors who share our vision. This funding will allow us to scale our operations and hire new talent to expand our cost-saving solutions to complex industries globally."
RLCore employs reinforcement learning to improve the efficacy and performance of industrial control systems. Reinforcement learning is a branch of artificial intelligence where software learns to make decisions to achieve improved performance while interacting with its environment as opposed to imitating humans. It was inspired by animal learning and psychology and mimics trial-and-error learning processes used by humans to achieve goals.
"TQ Ventures prides itself on partnering with exceptional founders," said Schuster Tanger, Co-Managing Partner of TQ Ventures. "We therefore seized the opportunity to invest in RL Core Technologies,led by a passionate team of eminent authorities in reinforcement learning. We are excited to help them replicate their success in water treatment in other industrial applications with automated controls."
"As the demand for sustainable practices grows, we envision that RLCore's technology will pave the way for more energy-efficient and environmentally sound solutions across various industries," said CEO Martha White.
RLCore was founded by Martha White, Adam White and Alden Christianson. Martha White is a Fellow of the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) and a professor at the University of Alberta, a hotbed for world-class artificial intelligence research. In September, Martha White was admitted to the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists by Canada's oldest and most prestigious scholarly institute, the Royal Society of Canada, for her significant achievements in artificial intelligence.
Co-founder Adam White has over 20 years experience in developing reinforcement learning systems and is an assistant professor at the University of Alberta, Canada CIFAR AI Chair, and the Scientific Director of Amii. Previously he was a staff research scientist at DeepMind.
Alden Christianson, the company's third co-founder, has spent his career scaling organizations and leading teams to tackle complex problems. He spent over a decade with Google deploying custom-designed products to its datacenters. More recently, he worked at DeepMind where he grew and led teams of world class scientists, engineers and managers to pursue novel research in reinforcement learning and game theory.
"By leveraging their expertise in machine learning, RL Core Technologies is well poised to disrupt the way industrial control systems operate. With AI-driven automation these solutions not only create significant cost savings for industries overseeing complex processes, but also ensure they remain compliant with increasingly more stringent regulations," said Flying Fish Ventures Managing Partner Heather Redmen.
About RL Core Technologies
RLCore provides optimization software for improved process control in water and wastewater.By leveraging reinforcement learning, RLCore is able to optimize industrial control systems beyond what any expert could achieve alone. Our software integrates with existing infrastructure to continually adapt low-level setpoints, freeing up engineers and operators to focus on higher-level goals. Our customers experience greater reliability and efficiency with our solution, which reduces chemical consumption, enhances ultrafiltration system permeability, improves chlorine dosing precision, and continually optimizes PID controller performance. For more information, visit www.rlcore.ai.
About TQ Ventures
Based in New York City, TQ Ventures is a venture capital firm led by Schuster Tanger and Andrew Marks. The firm is generally agnostic on industry vertical and geography, and instead prioritizes business models with durable competitive advantages led by extraordinary founders across the software complex (B2B and B2C). The differentiated support and networks we provide our more than 80 global investments have fueled our reputation and in turn performance record. Founded in 2018, TQ has approximately $1 billion under management and is currently investing out of its third fund. For more information, visit: www.tqventures.com.
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Source: RL Core Technologies
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