South Asia Investor Review

Washington D.C. based AI technology firm Afiniti, founded by serial Pakistani-American entrepreneur  Zia Chishti , has filed for initial public offering (IPO) at $1.6 billion valuation, according to VentureBeat. Zia Chishti founded his first company  Align Technology  in 1997 in  Silicon Valley . It creates clear plastic braces for straightening teeth by using advanced 3-D computer imaging. The technology now trademarked as  Invisalign  has  helped millions of people  straighten their teeth for a beautiful smile without enduring the pain and unsightly looks of the traditional steel brackets and wires used in orthodontics. Align Technology is now valued at $10 billion. Afiniti: Afiniti  uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to enable real-time, optimized pairing of individual call center agents with individual customers in large enterprises for best results. When a customer contacts a call center, Afiniti matches his or her phone ...

Zia Chishti, a Pakistani-American serial entrepreneur,  founded his first company  Align Technology  in 1997 in  Silicon Valley  on the idea of creating clear plastic braces by using advanced 3-D computer imaging. The technology now trademarked as  Invisalign  has  helped millions of people  straighten their teeth for a beautiful smile without enduring the pain and unsightly looks of the traditional steel brackets and wires used in orthodontics. Zia Chishti and Kelsey Wirth After graduating from Stanford Business School, Chishti wore braces when working as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. When his braces were removed he wore a clear plastic retainer. He noticed that when he did not wear the retainer for several days his teeth would move. However, putting the retainer back on helped bring his teeth to their desired, straightened state. It was this observation that a clear plastic device was capable of moving his own teeth that led...