Secondmind vs Improbable

Neither company has publicly disclosed a valuation, making a definitive size comparison difficult. Secondmind employs 1-50 people, while Improbable has 500-1000 employees.

Improbable has raised more in total funding at $700M, compared to Secondmind's $25M — a gap of $675M. Combined, the two companies have completed 4 known funding rounds.

Improbable leads with an Awaira Score of 68/100, while Secondmind sits at 45/100. That 23-point gap reflects real differences in funding, scale, and traction — it's not a vanity metric.

Secondmind was founded by Eric Bax in 2019. Improbable was founded by Herman Narula in 2012. Visit each company's profile on Awaira for a full founder biography.

Secondmind: Secondmind develops Bayesian machine learning optimisation technology for engineering applications, with a primary focus on automotive powertrain and vehicle systems calibration. The Cambridge company builds probabilistic machine learning tools that help automotive engineers optimise complex, multi-variable systems such as engine management, transmission control, and electrification systems with fewer physical experiments and less calibration time than traditional approaches.\n\nThe company raised approximately $25 million in a Series A round and acquired Prowler.io, a multi-agent reinforcement learning startup from Cambridge, in 2021 to expand its AI research capabilities. Secondmind customers include major automotive OEMs using the platform to reduce the number of dyno tests required for powertrain calibration, translating directly into reduced development costs and faster time-to-production for new vehicle programmes.\n\nSeconmind operates in the engineering AI optimisation market, competing with specialist automotive AI vendors and general-purpose Bayesian optimisation tools. The automotive calibration market is driven by increasing powertrain complexity as the industry transitions to hybrid and electric architectures, which require calibrating interactions between internal combustion engines, electric motors, and battery management systems that generate dramatically more control parameters than traditional powertrains. Cambridge University research partnerships provide the company a continuing source of methodological development in Bayesian and probabilistic machine learning. Improbable: Improbable develops large-scale simulation technology and virtual world infrastructure, originally focused on cloud-distributed game server simulation and subsequently pivoting to AI-powered synthetic environment generation and metaverse platform development. The London company built SpatialOS, a cloud platform for running distributed simulations of large, persistent virtual worlds, and has applied simulation capabilities to defence, urban planning, and entertainment applications.\n\nThe company raised approximately $700 million including a landmark $502 million SoftBank round in 2017 that was one of the largest venture rounds in European technology history. Improbable has undergone multiple strategic pivots, moving from gaming infrastructure to defence simulation contracts with clients including the UK Ministry of Defence, which uses simulation environments for training and wargaming. The company also built MSquared, a metaverse interoperability network, before refocusing on defence and AI simulation work.\n\nImprobable operates in an AI simulation market where demand from defence agencies, autonomous vehicle companies, and robotics firms has grown substantially. The company competes with simulation platforms from Epic Games (Unreal Engine), NVIDIA (Omniverse), and specialist defence simulation vendors. Its SoftBank backing and large cash reserves have enabled it to survive multiple market pivot cycles that would have ended less well-funded companies, and its current focus on AI-powered synthetic data generation for defence represents a growing government budget category.

Improbable got there first, launching in 2012 — that's 7 years of extra runway. Secondmind didn't arrive until 2019. In AI, that kind of head start means more training data, deeper customer relationships, and a bigger talent moat.

Secondmind has about 1-50 employees; Improbable has about 500-1000. A bigger team usually means more revenue or heavier VC backing, but in AI, small teams can build at massive scale.

Yes — they're direct rivals. Both Secondmind and Improbable compete in ML Platform, targeting many of the same buyers. If you're evaluating one, you should be looking at the other.