Croatian AI startup Mindsmiths raised €1.2M in a seed funding round led by Croatia-based VC Feelsgood investment fund. Founded in 2019, the company is a pioneer in the field of Autonomous Support System, and it will use the investment to further develop and expand its AI platform.
So far, the Mindsmiths platform has been used to build autonomous support systems in various industries, from healthcare for patients with chronic conditions to financial advice for clients in the banking sector.
By connecting with its platform, digital systems become autonomous, make independent decisions and approach users proactively, the company’s founder Mislav Malenica explains.
“Our platform enables other organizations to integrate a level of autonomy in their existing digital products such as banking or smart campus applications. There are hospitals using Mindsmiths to take care of their chronic patients outside of the hospital setting. Best schools are using our platform to offer proactive support and guidance to their students. Banks are building autonomous support systems to help their clients make the most of their money,” Malenica tells The Recursive.
AI with a social impact
Besides AI engineers, the company also employs humanist experts whose task is a continuous shifting of boundaries of possibilities when it comes to the relationship between humans and AI.
The artificial intelligence systems built on the Mindsmiths platform aim to demonstrate the ability to understand users’ needs and provide emotional support in challenging situations. For, Malenica the investment that Mindsmiths raised also represents a milestone in the democratization of approaching such technology.
“So far creating effective autonomous support systems was expensive and complex. It required profound engineering and social science know-how together with a lot of time and resources. Until now it was available only to very advanced tech companies, but with Mindsmiths we see a shift because we are providing everyone with the right tools and methodology to integrate autonomy in their business,” Malenica tells The Recursive.
The investment fund that led the round, Feelsgood, is the first VC fund developed completely in Croatia. The fund also aims to invest in ventures that fulfill sustainability goals and create a positive social impact.
“We estimated that Mindsmiths has great growth potential and is dedicated to achieving positive social impact. Because they create technology that makes democratization of knowledge possible, we expect profits to rise with an increase of quality of life for great numbers of people,” Renata Brkić, partner and board member of Feelsgood said in a statement.
Mindsmiths will also use its latest investment to expand its global presence, Malenica says.
“When it comes to the global market we would like to further our presence in Europe where we see a strong demand for trustworthy AI products that have a positive social impact, but we also look towards North America as we are already in discussions with multiple clients in the tech space that would like to use the platform to deepen the relationship with their users,” Malenica concludes.
