Plotly Gets $1.7M From Scale AI

Data science and artificial intelligence (AI) technology company Plotly has received a $1.7 million contribution from Scale AI, an innovation hub that invests in AI and the development of technology regarding supply chains in Canada, according to a press release. Scale AI is one of Canada’s five innovation superclusters, and it’s a prestigious nod for Plotly.

Plotly will use the money to speed up the development of its interactive analytic application builder called Dash, which is meant for applications with multi-node clusters that need high availability. Dash is an open core offering, and allows for the development of “interactive analytic applications in Python or R, and is used by companies worldwide to enable insight and knowledge sharing.”

Dash gives scientists a platform to make and operationalize machine learning and AI models in a scalable and highly repeatable way. With Dash, data scientists have the ability to make custom UIs quickly and easily so that others can interact directly with the models and data, and not have to understand the code underneath.

“As companies continue to invest in AI, the need to provide access to and facilitate an understanding of underlying models and outcomes is crucial to realizing potential business benefits, especially in high-availability environments like supply chain logistics,” said Plotly CEO Jack Parmer. “Today, Dash is helping companies operationalize these investments so that business teams and data science teams are working in lock step. With the added investment from Scale AI, Plotly will be able to quickly extend these capabilities, and make them even more beneficial for the development of AI and supply chain technology.”

Julien Billot, CEO of Scale AI, said the company was excited about the investment.

“Scale AI’s mission is to enhance productivity across industries in Canada through the integration of AI in supply chains, and to support the emergence of a Canadian AI ecosystem,” Billot said. “We’re excited to invest in this project with Plotly, a company that is already an established provider of innovative open source and enterprise analytic solutions. Plotly’s commitment to partnering with Canadian businesses and other organizations to speed the development of the most advanced AI solutions will help lift the profile of Québec businesses, and continue to distinguish Canadian leadership in AI.”