But representatives of the two VC firms Karim claims contacted him say this isn't true.
"I have never met or talked to Saeed Karim or Radiant Data or any of its predecessor companies," says Kyle Lefkoff, general partner at Boulder Ventures.
Meanwhile, Tim Connor, partner at Sequel, says Karim's version of events is somewhat exaggerated. "Sounds like a bit of overselling by Saeed," he says. "We looked at Radiant about nine to 12 months ago and were intrigued by the technology and team, but told them we needed to see some success/validation with customers before we would seriously consider an investment. I have not had an update on their progress since then."
Radiant Data, which has just seven employees, is currently shipping its software and has landed two customers (although Karim wasn't ready to tell us who they are). In order to expand the business, he acknowledges, "I'm going to have to go out and get money, but at reasonable terms... I've seen VC valuations for companies at zero."
PeakData and Radiant Data share two main angel investors: Carl R. Vertuca Jr., a former StorageTek and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) exec who runs a venture capital and real estate investment company, and Raymond D. Croghan, formerly president of Applied Communications Inc. (ACI), a payment processing firm that is now known as Transaction Systems Architects Inc. (TSA). Karim would not disclose the amount of funding the companies have received to date.
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
