Connecticut Innovations (CI), the state’s quasi-public venture capital arm, said Thursday it has made two investments totaling $2.75 million from its recently launched artificial intelligence fund — backing Stamford-based Yuma Asset Management and New Haven-based Bexorg.
The $50 million AI/Q Fund was created to accelerate growth in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other emerging technologies.
According to Lauren Carmody, chief marketing officer for CI, her organization invested $2 million in Bexorg and $750,000 in Yuma Asset Management. These are the first two investments from the AI/Q Fund, she added.
Based at 290 Harbor Drive in Stamford, Yuma Asset Management, a subsidiary of Yuma Holdings, is a participant in Bittensor, a decentralized AI (deAI) network. The firm, backed by Digital Currency Group, offers institutional and accredited investors a new way to access open-source AI infrastructure through subnet tokens — a digital asset class that rewards AI development on the Bittensor network.
Bittensor provides a marketplace for AI applications spanning areas such as drug discovery and fraud detection, CI said.
Bexorg, based at 290 Congress Ave. in New Haven, is advancing central nervous system drug discovery with its technology platform BrainEx, which restores certain molecular functions in postmortem human brains, creating a model that closely mirrors how drugs might act in living tissue.
The system generates real-time, physiologically relevant data that feeds into an AI platform trained on human neurobiology.
Bexorg announced earlier this week that it raised $23 million.
“Yuma and Bexorg exemplify the types of innovative and bold opportunities we seek to support through the AI/Q Fund,” said CI CEO Matt McCooe.