Navia Systems

Why do some students perform better than others? Which debtors will default? Will there be a chain reaction? Which patients will respond to a treatment, and what pathway is responsible?

Increasingly, we are dependent on interpreting diverse, voluminous data. We seek to make sense of them, identify their underlying causes and, where possible, make precise and accurate predictions about the future.

Unlike addition or subtraction, however, these questions do not have definitive answers. At best, we may think we have an answer, but remain uncertain about its validity. At worst, we are so uncertain that we do not think there is an answer. Either way, our ability to acknowledge and quantify our uncertainty will determine whether we can find true and useful answers and act on them effectively.

This is what Navia is about. We design probabilistic computers, a new class of hardware and software that embraces uncertainty to generate inferences. Unlike current computers, which are built for logical deduction and precise arithmetic with no room for ambiguity, our computers are built for guessing the meaning behind inherently ambiguous data. Our first product, Veritable, solves challenging data interpretation and prediction problems in human health, policy, marketing and finance.

Our founders are a band of MIT graduates who have been working together for years, and we are backed by Founders Fund. We are passionate about helping people — and machines — understand their world and make better decisions. We believe probabilistic computing has the potential to spread as widely as the microprocessor and are working to realize this promise.