On a different note, a quick cursory glance of this company really makes me wonder who even gave them $160M? The company site is soulless and filled with corporate jargon, and the whole company smells of bloat and leadership team is a long list of people in bullshit jobs. Is this where VC money goes these days? I am dumbfounded by the degree of mismatch between capital and utility
Another notable investor is a french public entity (bpifrance) which might very well have similar reasons but on the country level, having to allocate funds to "AI" to demonstrate France leading role in future technology.
Note that this doesn't mean Deepski and it's leadership can't be great - but the thought experiment of some well networked people noticing they could all benefit over a glass of wine also doesn't seem too far off.
Edit: Maybe there's an angle for someone really serious about this FOSS dilemma here, I hear public entities really hate bad PR - maybe ask bpifrance how they feel about this?
That's often a sign of money laundering