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Silo AI turns 3 years and reaches the 100-people milestone

On our continued growth path, we’re excited to have reached two milestones at Silo AI. In addition to our three-year anniversary, we’re also celebrating that our company is reaching a three-digit milestone – we now have more than 100 people on the busy streets of Silopolis!

This year has been characterized by growth. We’ve hired 50 people and extended our operations to Stockholm, with the opening of our sixth office in September. Although we’ve mostly been in fully remote mode, our team is now spread between Helsinki, Turku, Oulu, Stockholm, London and Palo Alto. In 2020, we’ve also been honored to collaborate with our clients such as Philips, Allianz, Huawei, Helen, Tekniska verken, Posti, and many more. We’ve focused on building AI-driven solutions and products together with our clients, creating value in three core areas: smart industry and vehicles, smart devices and networks, and smart cities and citizens.

From academia to leading private AI lab

Since day one, we have been on a mission to be the European flagship AI company that brings cutting-edge AI capabilities to organizations and assures organizations to succeed on their AI journey. Although we’re three years old now, the story began much earlier. While still in academia, we’ve already since 2010 been building AI solutions that have been on-boarded by organizations globally. The impact and value of collaboration between academia and industry was already then visible, as there seemed to be a clear need for skilled scientists that could contribute to real-world problems with AI.

Fast forward a few years. One of our co-founders Juha Hulkko expressed his concerns about Finland, the Nordics and wider Europe losing the AI game. To address this, we founded Silo AI in 2017 with ex-Nokia CTO Tero Ojanperä, former Chairman of PwC Finland Johan Kronberg, entrepreneur Ville Hulkko, Adjunct Professor Kaj-Mikael Björk as well as Elektrobit founder Juha Hulkko. We joined forces on a mission to build a private AI lab that keeps and brings world-class AI talent to the region and helps corporations implement cutting-edge AI. In short, we set out as a trusted AI partner to assure that organizations in the region stay competitive at a time when AI is being widely adopted.

Earlier this year, we joined forces with Technologies Industries of Finland in running Finland's AI Accelerator FAIA, which marked an important milestone in our efforts to build the AI ecosystem. With FAIA, we’ve been able to put together initiatives that help companies leverage AI, and discover the possibilities in an easier way. One example of such is the publication of the State of AI in Finland report, a joint effort together with Business Finland, Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence, The Finnish State Development Company Vake, and many more.

Road ahead: New markets and Silo OS 

We’re continuously evolving as an organization and striving for continued growth, with the intent to help even more organizations make use of, adopt and develop cutting-edge AI. The next years will be depicted by our endeavor to more widely help organizations globally adopt AI. In addition to internationalization, we’ve since day one put heavy efforts in building out Silo OS, an operating software with modular AI components to speed up AI development. For anyone getting started on their AI journey, Silo OS provides a quick start and reduces development costs with annotation, development, and operations infrastructure.

But it’s obvious that our strive to help organizations more widely will focus on opening new offices in new markets. In 2020, we’ve continued our expansion to new international markets, with the opening of our Stockholm office in September and early efforts and plans for several more to come. New markets will be our key focus during the upcoming years, as we take the next steps on our journey to become the European flagship AI company.

In three years, we’ve learned a lot about building and running a private AI lab with a team consisting of leading experts in their fields, as well as to help organizations succeed on their AI journey. That said, Silo AI is still at the beginning of its own journey. I want to thank all our clients and employees, for making these first years the success they have been, and look forward to extending our capabilities even further and helping our clients even more widely in the future.

Peter Sarlin, CEO of Silo AI

Happy birthday Silo AI - let's make the next 3 years as amazing as the last 3!

“3-year-olds are curious, like to try new things, and ask lots of why questions. Their characteristics and personality have formed into a unique identity. Close interpersonal relationships are important for them.”

The team gathered together to celebrate Silo AI for birthday coffee and chocolate, sent to each Citizen of Silopolis.

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Peter Sarlin, PhD
CEO & Co-founder
Silo AI

Peter Sarlin is the CEO and co-founder of Silo AI, one of Europe’s largest private AI labs, and a Professor of Practice in applied ML and AI at Aalto University. He has spent his career at the intersection of academia and industry, deploying state-of-the-art AI into products of large corporations and startups. Peter has a PhD in applied machine learning and a pedigree as research professor/associate from top universities like Imperial College London, London School of Economics, Stockholm University, IWH Halle, University of Technology Sydney and the University of Cape Town, and has previously worked for the ECB and IMF, among others.

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