Australian AI firm Flamingo raises $3.8m for virtual assistants 
Sydney-based artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Flamingo has raised AUD5m ($3.8m) in less than 15 minutes in an oversubscribed funding round, according to CEO Catriona Wallace. The funding will enable the rollout of Flamingo's flagship products, virtual sales and inquiry assistants Rosie and Maggie, aimed initially at the "highly commoditised" insurance sector. Wallace said Flamingo was "a good year ahead" of rivals Microsoft and Watson, and added the company was working on "five big client go-lives across Australia and the US".

Two artificial virtual assistants called Rosie and Maggie are set to become more ubiquitous after artificial intelligence start-up Flamingo raised $5.1 million last month to fund their rollout.

Chief executive Catriona Wallace, who founded Flamingo in 2014, says she is "super pleased" with the raise after it was opened and closed within 12 minutes with $10 million bid on the book.

Catriona Wallace says the successful capital raise is an endorsement of artificial intelligence. Credit: Ben Rushton

"We were well oversubscribed," she says. "It was one of the fastest capital raises that [lead investment partner] Bell Potter had ever conducted, which I believe is testament to Australia's growing interest in artificial intelligence and machine learning."

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