Brainpool AI

Idea

Introduction

Brainpool is a global network of AI and Machine Learning experts, coming from some of the best AI hubs such as Oxford, Cambridge, UCL and NYU. We apply the latest research in Artificial Intelligence to solve some of the most pressing business challenges.

Over the past two years we’ve helped companies like Sainsbury’s, EY or Facebook apply machine learning and AI to automate, optimise or increase efficiency of their operations.

From our work with clients we’ve gained deep understanding of where demand and opportunity exists in AI. Based on this knowledge we have identified an area in which we can excel and build our first very own products - Forstack and DAISY.

Forstack is an algorithm that predicts movements in the financial-time series with higher than average accuracy. DAISY is an automated Design AI System that finds an optimal floorplan design with a click of a button.

Here is a video that explains Brainpool consultancy in a bit more detail:

Intended impact

The long-term vision for Brainpool is to become a leader in productising AI solutions which are most needed to support corporations and to help the environment. So far we have developed two products which we will bring into the market beginning of next year.

There’s a lot of volatility in the financial markets, especially in foreign exchange, which impacts profitability. Forstack was built to improve the accuracy of predicting movements in foreign exchange rates. Thanks to stacking multiple machine learning algorithms in real-time our algorithm gets better results than the signals produced by a single model which, we believe, most banks and hedge funds currently use.

Up to 30% of construction materials go to waste due to sub-optimal designs. Our second product DAISY is built to reduce the construction costs, time required to produce a design but most importantly reduce the material wastage. We are working with a client that imports wooden parts from South America, and our tools will help minimise their waste.

Substantial accomplishments to date

This year we have been listed as one of the top 10 AI consultancies and and our Managing Director Kasia Borowska was named one of the top 10 women in AI innovation. We provide journalists and publishers knowledge they need to write articles about the latest AI technologies. Our AI experts feature in the Forbes, Bloomberg, Daily Mail, Medium, and many other tech publications.

Companies we’ve worked with include some of the biggest UK retailers, global investment banks, top social networks, manufacturers and construction companies. Our community of over 350 AI experts provide the highest-level quality AI solutions.

The demand for AI is huge and, there is likely to be more companies needing AI than the AI experts themselves. Thanks to this growing demand we have started generating revenue from year 1, and to date we have made over £500,000* from consulting clients. After doubling the revenue in year 2 we are now ready to scale through selling our first two products launch. We have working MVPs for both Forstack and DAISY which we have funded partly with a help of our clients and partly by using the consultancy revenue.

The next step now is to build platforms to start selling our products. Forstack will initially be hosted on the Brainpool website with signals being fed through a web socket. DAISY will be a stand-alone website which will give construction design companies easy access to our AI-powered design tools.

*Based on unaudited management accounts

Monetisation strategy

Brainpool Consultancy has been supporting the team and business since the launch in 2017. Our business model allows us to fund new product ideas by re-investing consultancy revenue. This has worked for us in the past two years, we’ve made over half a million revenue on consulting and required very minimal funding. But this year is crucial. In 2020 we are planning to sell our first products through Algopool Platform.

Price of consultancy projects is evaluated on a project-by-project basis and based on the findings of our scoping programme. The consultancy projects vary from £1,500 - £200,000 in size.

Revenue from our products will be made on a subscription basis. We estimate the subscription for Forstack to be between £10,000 - £20,000 per user per month. DAISY will be priced on a pay-per-use basis.

Use of proceeds

We are raising investment in order to accelerate the process of bringing our first two products to the market. Most of the budget will be spent on our engineering and machine learning team. The other big items on the list are hardware, marketing and sales. The full breakdown can be found below.