Observed Signal · Apr 27, 2023 · Funding · Source: Trending Topics · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Leftshift One Raises Fresh Funding for European ChatGPT Alternative
Graz-based AI startup Leftshift One has raised a high six-figure amount in a new funding round from existing investors Hermann Hauser and eQventure, joined by Steirische Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft (SFG). Founded in 2017 and employing 25 people, the company offers an enterprise-focused European alternative to OpenAI's ChatGPT. Its model is based on fine-tuned transformer models with seven to twenty billion parameters and can be deployed inside a company's own data center, avoiding the need to share sensitive data with external clouds. Leftshift One targets the public sector and regional businesses with use cases such as classifying emails, files, and documents and answering customer requests. The founders retain over 60 percent of shares after the round. Previously, Hauser and eQventure invested €2 million in 2019. CEO Patrick Ratheiser emphasizes transparency, data control, and trustworthiness compared to US cloud-based chatbots.
A high six-figure funding round for a 25-person European enterprise LLM startup is relevant to AI infrastructure trends but has limited direct impact on the AdTech/MarTech industry.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Leftshift One raised a high six-figure amount from existing investors Hermann Hauser and eQventure, plus new investor SFG.
- The Graz-based AI startup was founded in 2017 and has 25 employees.
- Leftshift One offers a European enterprise ChatGPT alternative based on fine-tuned transformer models with 7 to 20 billion parameters.
- The solution can be run in a company's internal data center to keep sensitive data on-premise.
- Founders retain over 60% of shares after the new financing round.
- Hauser and eQventure previously invested €2 million in Leftshift One in 2019.
Connected Companies & Entities
2 Entities mapped“ChatGPT von OpenAI hat die Online-Welt im Sturm erobert....”
“der KI-Chatbot, der wie berichtet mittlerweile ziemlich eng an Microsoft und dessen Azure-Cloud gekoppelt ist....”
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