Tel Aviv-based startup Citrusx has recently emerged from stealth and announced that it has successfully raised $4.5 million in seed funding. The funding round was led by Canadian VC Awz, with participation from multiple angel investors. Founded two years ago, Citrusx has positioned itself in the AI space with a unique focus on making AI technology explainable.
The Need for AI Transparency
As countries around the world explore the impact of AI and look to regulate this novel technology, Citrusx aims to bridge the gap between technical and non-technical stakeholders by providing an end-to-end platform. This platform allows business stakeholders to understand the AI models they are working with and ensures compliance with internal and regulatory requirements.
Noa Srebrnik, the founder of Citrusx and a former risk management professional, recognized the challenges faced by companies trying to gain approval for AI projects. The approval process often involves obtaining input and clearance from non-technical stakeholders such as validation, risk, and legal teams. Due to the knowledge gap between technical and non-technical teams, this approval process can be time-consuming and delay project launches, potentially impacting business revenue.
Citrusx’s platform aims to simplify and expedite the approval process by providing clear reports that explain the model’s purpose, performance, and business outcomes. By addressing the entire AI lifecycle, from development to production, Citrusx ensures that AI models are validated, monitored, and compliant with regulations.
The Impact on AI Development and Deployment
Citrusx’s platform offers essential benefits during both the development and production stages of AI models. During development, it provides validation metrics, identifies vulnerabilities, and offers tools for regulatory compliance. In the production stage, the platform continuously monitors deployed models, explains predictions, and suggests steps to reduce potential risks.
“By providing one unified platform for a whole company to use, Citrusx acts as the bridge that connects those mysterious ML models to the rest of the company through validation, monitoring, and reporting. Deployment and maintenance of ML models (can) become smoother and faster, meeting regulatory demands, and helping to explain model decisions to end customers,” said Noa Srebnik.
The platform’s real-time report generation enables seamless communication and collaboration between model developers and oversight teams. This level of transparency and confidence in the model development process contributes to smoother regulatory compliance and faster time to production.
During its stealth phase, Citrusx began working with publicly listed companies within regulated industries such as finance and security. Although specific names and the number of customers remain undisclosed, Citrusx’s patent-pending technology ensures 100% transparency and leads to 82% faster time to production, providing a significant boost to return on AI investments for teams.
Citrusx in the AI Regulatory Landscape
As governments worldwide implement regulations to mitigate the risks associated with AI, tools like Citrusx are essential for teams to navigate regulatory frameworks. President Biden recently issued an executive order establishing new standards for AI safety and security, while the EU finalized a “global first” AI act that provides a legal framework for trusted AI development.
Citrusx joins other players in the market, such as London-based LLM analytics startup Context and California-based Arize AI. These companies are assisting teams in building better, safer AI solutions. The growing market for AI compliance and transparency suggests that more players will enter the field in the near future.
