AI development may be the hottest trend in tech, but it's not getting any easier. According to a recent Boston Consulting Group poll, 74% of organizations are struggling to derive value from their AI investments. This is where Lightning AI comes in, with its open-source framework PyTorch Lightning that simplifies AI development and deployment.

Founded by William Falcon, the creator of PyTorch Lightning, and Luis Capelo, former Forbes' data products lead, Lightning AI has just raised $50 million in funding to further its mission. The company's platform provides a high-level interface for PyTorch, abstracting away the complex code required to set up and maintain AI systems. With Lightning AI, developers can fine-tune and run AI models in their preferred cloud environments, and even host AI-powered apps on private cloud infrastructure or on-premises data centers.

The platform has already gained significant traction, with over 230,000 AI developers and 3,200 organizations using it. The company plans to use the new funding to recruit new customers, including government customers, and expand its platform to new markets. With a lean team and a high-margin product, Lightning AI is on track to reach $10 million to $20 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of next year and achieve profitability shortly after.