Jarvis Corp began with a simple goal–to go beyond the rudimentary capabilities of virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri or Google Now, and develop a truly intelligent virtual assistant more akin to Tony Stark’s J.A.R.V.I.S. in the Iron Man movies.
The core group of developers who have banded together for this effort have made considerable and admirable progress toward that goal. It’s even more impressive when you consider that these developers have no funding, and are basically working around the clock on their personal time to make it happen.
The Version 0.1 video on YouTube showcases where the project was a couple months ago, and Jarvis Corp has some major updates coming soon. But, to develop a platform of this magnitude–basically a new operating system that re-imagines the way our devices and PCs learn from and interact with us, our data, and our surroundings–the organization needs funding.
Jarvis Corp is approaching the funding challenge from two directions. First, the group has initiated an IndieGogo fundraising campaign. Jarvis Corp hopes to raise $100,000 in crowd funding from that effort.
It will be great if Jarvis Corp achieves that goal, but $100,000 is a drop in the bucket. What the startup really needs is an infusion of capital from angel or venture investors. So, Jarvis Corp also created a second fundraising campaign aimed more at industrial investors on AngelList. That campaign is intended to generate an initial round of investment of $2 million.
The prospects for Jarvis Corp are solid. Google reportedly spent $50 million to acquire Aardvark in 2010–a service that essentially crowdsources an answer to a given query from your social networks. Apple bought Siri for an estimated $100 to $200 million a few months later. Both of those were stepping stones that helped Google and Apple get where they are now in terms of virtual assistant capabilities, but neither is as advanced as what Jarvis Corp is working on.
Players in angel and venture capital should take a closer look at what Jarvis Corp is doing. It is on the right track, and with some funding, and some professional guidance the company will go on to huge things, and probably be a good candidate to be acquired by one of the bigger players in tech like Microsoft, Google, or Apple.