Replicate

Replicate is a company developing a platform for running machine learning models in the cloud. Developers can access and run a library of open-source models using a few lines of code with Replicate. The platform can also automatically generate an API server for custom machine learning models, running them on clusters of GPUs to simplify deploying models. Replicate scales based on the demand, such that customers pay based on how long their code is running. The founders of Replicate say they want to make it possible for software engineers to use machine learning with zero experience, enabling them to build new AI products and apply them to new business problems.

Located in San Francisco, Replicate was founded in 2019 by Ben Firshman and Andreas Jansson. The idea for Replicate came while Jansson was working as a machine learning engineer at Spotify. He was explaining problems preventing the use of open-source machine learning models to Firshman, whose background is in developer tools, including Docker. The pair decided to work on defining a "standard box" for machine learning models that researchers could use to deploy machine learning models anywhere. They developed Cog, described as a "Docker for machine learning," an open-source tool that allows developers to package machine learning models in a standard, production-ready container format. Cog is core to Replicate, which acts as a library of open-source machine learning models that developers can run in the cloud and build on top of as well as generate API servers for user-generated models.

Replicate came out of stealth on February 21, 2023, with $17.8 million in funding. This includes a $12.5 million Series A round by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Y Combinator, Sequoia, and angel investors including Figma CEO Dylan Field and Vercel’s Guillermo Rauch, and a previously undisclosed seed round. An SEC filing by Replicate on July 12, 2023, revealed the company had a new $32.4 million investment.