Chalk, a cutting-edge data platform designed for AI inference, announced a $50 million Series A funding round at a $500 million valuation. Led by Felicis and supported by major investors, this capital will fuel Chalk’s platform development, customer growth, and expansion of engineering and go-to-market teams. As AI adoption accelerates, Chalk addresses a critical market gap by enabling real-time data pipelines for AI inference, improving predictions and operational outcomes.
Highlights of Chalk’s Innovation and Growth
1. Series A Funding and Strategic Investment
- Raised $50 million at a $500 million valuation in a round led by Felicis, with participation from Triatomic Capital, General Catalyst, Unusual Ventures, and Xfund.
- Aydin Senkut, Founder and Managing Partner at Felicis, joins Chalk’s board.
- Funds to accelerate platform development, customer onboarding, and growth of hubs in San Francisco and New York.
2. Addressing a Market Gap: Inference Data Pipelines
- Existing platforms like Databricks and Snowflake focus on training data pipelines, but lack solutions for real-time inference data needs.
- Chalk’s platform provides fresh, low-latency data at inference time, critical for applications such as fraud prevention, instant loan issuance, clean energy optimization, and content moderation.
3. High-Performance Real-Time Capabilities
- Delivers data pipelines with 5-millisecond latency at massive scale, redefining data flow through the AI stack.
- Enables teams to write features in pure Python, automatically converting them into efficient C++ and Rust pipelines without complex ETL processes.
4. Industry Applications and Customer Impact
- Powers real-time machine learning in fintech, identity security, healthcare, and e-commerce sectors.
- Customers include Socure, Found, Medely, and Iwoca, leveraging Chalk to deliver responsive, personalized, and secure products.
- Enables rapid operationalization of AI and machine learning across businesses.
5. Advanced AI Infrastructure and Toolchain
- Chalk’s LLM Toolchain unifies structured and unstructured data, supports native vector storage, automates evaluations, and integrates seamlessly with major large language model providers.
- Facilitates complex feature engineering for LLMs, improving threat detection and decision-making precision.
6. Experienced Founding Team
- Co-founded by Marc Freed-Finnegan, Elliot Marx, and Andrew Moreland, veterans with deep fintech and data infrastructure expertise.
- Team’s prior experience includes leadership roles at Affirm, Palantir, Credit Karma, Google Wallet, and Stripe.
- The founders recognized the importance of real-time data pipelines for new AI-powered products and business models.
Chalk’s $50 million funding round marks a pivotal step in accelerating real-time AI inference pipelines that power innovative applications across industries. By bridging the gap between training and inference data needs, Chalk is enabling businesses to make fresh, accurate predictions faster, shaping the future of AI-driven decision-making.
