With Seed funding round led by Lightspeed, Sphinx unveils AI copilot for data scientists that thinks in statistics and patterns to find value in raw information
Sphinx, the company creating AI specifically for data, officially launched alongside a $9.5 million Seed funding round and the debut of its AI copilot for data professionals. The round was led by Lightspeed, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Box Group, K5, Impatient VC, and others. Notable backers also include Steve Cohen, Naveen Rao, and leaders from Databricks, Windsurf, and Together AI. The funding will help Sphinx accelerate development of its agentic AI, which is designed to work seamlessly with data and data science workflows.
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While AI copilots have already transformed software development, data science has largely been left behind. Data scientists work in iterative, exploratory ways that demand a different kind of AI. Unlike general-purpose copilots, Sphinx Copilot is built specifically for data: it rigorously verifies models, builds accurate representations, and bases its responses on quantitative evidence rather than simply rushing to produce code.
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“Sphinx brings frontier AI capabilities to data analysis, redefining how AI thinks about data,” said Bucky Moore, partner at Lightspeed. “By taking on the repetitive, time-consuming parts of data work, Sphinx allows teams to unlock insights faster than ever. Enterprises need better, faster ways to turn data into decisions and Sphinx delivers that.”
Available today, Sphinx Copilot works alongside data professionals to turn raw information into actionable insights. Whether it’s refining forecasts, optimizing operations, or powering applications from supply chains to sports analytics, the copilot integrates directly into the tools teams already use, including Jupyter notebooks and VSCode.
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“AI has transformed natural language and coding, but traditional data has been left behind,” said Rohan Kodialam, co-founder and CEO of Sphinx. “We’re building the missing layer AI that directly interacts with structured data to create real business value. From retail to CPG to financial services, our goal is to supercharge data teams everywhere.”
Sphinx is already making a difference in the real world. “Sphinx has helped our data scientists uncover shopper behavior patterns in minutes instead of hours or days,” said Brian Tate, CEO of Oats Overnight. “It’s become an essential part of our analytics workflow, and we’re excited to keep building with them.”
Founded by Rohan Kodialam, formerly an AI research leader at Citadel, and Jamie Bloxham, an early technology lead at MosaicML, Sphinx addresses a key challenge: AI models have often been disconnected from the structured datasets and workflows that drive real business decisions. By focusing on representation learning, reinforcement learning, and products built for practitioners, Sphinx helps data teams work smarter, faster, and with more confidence.
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