Root Signals, a company located in Helsinki and Palo Alto that specializes in generative AI (GenAI) measurement using LLM-as-a-judge methodologies, secured $2.8 million. ‍Angular Ventures led the round, with investment from Business Finland. Root Signals announced the news on its website.

What does Root Signals do?

  • Founded in 2023 by CEO Dr. Ari Heljakka, Root Signals has developed an AI control platform using LLM judges to ensure measurable and reliable GenAI outputs, despite the challenges faced by businesses in implementing GenAI prototypes. 

  • ‍AI engineers are using guardrails to prevent unintended behaviors in GenAI-powered business applications, but this approach lacks value maximization. To automate complex measurements, Root Signals has introduced EvalOps, a scalable, long-term approach that makes production-grade GenAI applications quantifiable, reliable, auditable, and reusable. 

  • Root Signals has been adopted by independent software vendors, AI teams, and LLM software consultants. It enables companies to quickly build comprehensive metrics, making model-to-model comparisons easier. This allows for the replacement of large models like GPTs with smaller, faster on-premise models, particularly crucial for regulated industries.

"GenAI has no built-in quality control. You cannot treat it as traditional software, but rather you need to think of it as an unreliable freelancer. You have to be pedantic in instructing it, and then check its work in seven different ways – and then check again tomorrow. We make this scalable with metrics that are understandable and easy to maintain in production. Most other power tools in this sector are overly low-level and complex, or they provide more black boxes that kick the reliability can down the road," says Dr. Ari Heljakka, Founder and CEO of Root Signals, with a PhD in GenAI. 

‍‍About the investors 

  • ‍Angular Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm based in the United Kingdom that invests in European and Israeli deep-tech enterprise startups.

"Root Signals’s approach of using AI to manage enterprise AI implementation makes intuitive sense,” comments Gil Dibner of Angular Ventures. "Everyone knows 90% of enterprise GenAI projects are stalling. To succeed, enterprises will need to implement LLM-specific evaluation tooling, which is not easy to begin with. Doing this well enough for enterprise use cases means building a robust constellation of LLM judges, and few enterprises have sufficient know-how to do this. Fortunately for them, the Root Signals founders have been thinking about this problem for 20 years."

  • Business Finland is a Finnish government's institution in charge of sponsoring innovation and promoting commerce, tourism, and investments. Business Finland has made multiple investments in businesses in the Business/Productivity Software, Human Capital Services, and Diagnostic Equipment sectors, including Social First, Jobilla, and NADMED.

Root Signals intends to use the funds to advance its platform and model development, as well as its advertising and sales capabilities.