(Reuters) – Julia Computing raised $24 million in a funding round led by venture capital firm Dorilton Ventures and said Bob Muglia, former chief of software provider Snowflake Inc, would join the computing solutions company’s board.
The funding round also included participation from Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, and HighSage Ventures, Julia Computing said in a statement on Monday.
The company was founded in 2015 by the creators of the Julia programming language, which was originally developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and introduced to the public in 2012.
The language is used in artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, modeling and simulation.
More than 10,000 companies across the globe use the language, including AstraZeneca PLC, BlackRock and Microsoft Corp, Julia Computing said. NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York also use Julia.
The company said it would use the funds raised to develop and advance its cloud platform, JuliaHub, and focus on new Julia-based product developments for pharmaceuticals, energy, finance and other sectors.
“Technical computing is stuck in a rut today … data scientists and engineers are using products that were designed many decades ago,” said Viral Shah, co-founder and CEO of Julia Computing, and co-creator of Julia.
The JuliaHub platform makes it easier to develop batteries, new drugs and therapies and simulate space missions, Shah said in a statement, while using fewer resources and reducing data center emissions.
(Reporting by Sohini Podder; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
