Vyas Sekar, an innovative mind, often sought advice from his college buddy, Muckai Girish. Their discussions usually ended with mere contemplation. However, everything changed when Sekar pitched the concept of utilizing synthetic data to Girish in 2022.
“At that time, it felt that this was very real and there was an opportunity.”
The duo, along with Giulia Fanti from Carnegie Mellon University, envisioned addressing the reproducibility crisis prevalent in academia through synthetic data. While Sekar identified its relevance in academia, Girish recognized a similar need among his enterprise clients.
Upon validating their idea with enterprises and investors, the inception of Rockfish transpired. This startup leverages generative AI to craft synthetic data for operational workflows. By partnering with prominent database providers such as AWS and Azure,
“So that’s what got us started…and realized this was a significant problem.”
Rockfish assists users in tailoring their data configurations based on company policies or specific use cases effectively breaking down data silos within organizations. Despite the burgeoning interest in synthetic data within the AI realm prior to Rockfish’s establishment,
Girish emphasized differentiating their product by focusing on continuous data ingestion tailored for operational functions like financial transactions and cybersecurity. These dynamic sectors constantly generate vast amounts of evolving data requiring specialized handling.
“The team is super high-quality…having that technical strength around the table is really critical.”
This strategic positioning has enabled Rockfish to collaborate with leading enterprise clients like Conviva while also serving governmental departments such as the U.S. Army and U.S. Department of Defense. The recent $4 million seed funding round further solidifies Rockfish’s position within the industry,
Anupam Rastogi from Emergent Ventures highlighted their investment criteria revolving around team caliber, market potential, and product uniqueness—elements strongly embodied by Rockfish’s dedicated team armed with advanced technical expertise.
Although competition looms large within the synthetic data landscape with notable players like Tonic AI and Hazy vying for market share,
“It’s not like you take random data for the internet and generate synthetic data.”
Girish remains focused on enhancing Rockfish’s capabilities by exploring additional modeling techniques such as state space models while continually refining end-to-end features to meet evolving industry demands.
The journey of Rockfish epitomizes a blend of innovation, determination, and strategic foresight—all aimed at revolutionizing how enterprises harness synthetic data to drive operational efficiencies amidst a rapidly evolving technological landscape.
Leave feedback about this