Ayala fund invests in AI access in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – Ayala Corporate Technology Innovation Venture Fund, known as Active Fund, has stepped up its investment in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The venture capital firm has invested in Featherless.ai, a platform that offers access to open source AI models. The investment aims to improve access to AI and reduce costs associated with using AI systems. Kickstart Ventures, which manages Active Fund, did not reveal the total investment amount. Joan Yao, a general partner at Kickstart Ventures, stated that AI can enhance human productivity and is central to their investment strategy. Featherless.ai plans to use the investment to develop future AI systems that can lower expenses related to AI predictions and outputs. The firm highlighted that traditional AI inferencing can be expensive and environmentally harmful due to high energy consumption. Featherless.ai aims to avoid costly downtime in AI processes and provide models like DeepSeek and Llama at reduced costs. Its founder, Eugene Cheah, expressed a desire to prevent AI control by just a few entities and to empower individuals worldwide. A recent PwC survey found that 75 percent of CEOs in the Philippines trust the use of AI in business processes, surpassing the global average of 67 percent. However, these CEOs also noted a skills gap among workers that hinders full adoption of AI technology.