South African AI company Cerebrium announced on July 6, that it has raised $8.5 million in initial funding, with Y Combinator and Authentic Ventures providing support.
Gradient Ventures spearheaded the funding. This capital injection aims to accelerate Cerebrium’s mission to provide scalable AI infrastructure that supports multimodal applications involving voice AI, digital avatars, and healthcare solutions.
Scaling AI infrastructure for real-time applications
Cerebrium offers a serverless CPU and GPU platform designed to handle volatile workloads efficiently. CEO Michael Louis explained, “You only get charged for that exact time that it was basically running for,” highlighting the cost-effectiveness of their elastic infrastructure.
This approach lets engineering teams focus on product innovation without worrying about backend scaling. Gradient Ventures partner Eylul Kayin emphasised the necessity of such specialised infrastructure, stating, “We believe specialised infrastructure, which scales elastically, will be essential as real-time AI becomes core to customer experiences”.
The startup’s platform supports multimodal AI applications that process diverse data types, text, images, and audio, enabling clients to easily deploy AI solutions globally. Current customers include Tavus, Deepgram, and Vapi, companies leveraging AI-generated video and voice technologies.
Despite having a lean team of just four engineers, Cerebrium is already generating millions in annual recurring revenue, a testament to its robust technology and market fit.
South African roots and ambitious growth plans
Founded by South African entrepreneur Michael Louis and CTO Jonathan Irwin, Cerebrium operates from New York but maintains strong ties to South Africa.
Louis’s experience founding OneCart, an e-commerce startup acquired by Walmart-owned Massmart in 2021, inspired the creation of Cerebrium after encountering machine learning challenges in on-demand grocery delivery.
The new funding will enable Cerebrium to expand its engineering team and introduce new features to meet increasing enterprise demand.
This investment positions Cerebrium as a rising contender in the global AI infrastructure market, which is rapidly expanding due to growing demand for AI-powered applications across industries.
Cerebrium aims to empower developers worldwide to build sophisticated AI experiences without the complexity of managing heavy backend systems by focusing on scalable, serverless infrastructure.