ConfidentialMind Oy: A Success Story in AI Startup Funding

ConfidentialMind Oy is a Finnish startup specialised in the development of generative AI software infrastructure for businesses. Established in 2023 and located at the Aalto University campus in Espoo, the company boasts a team of experienced entrepreneurs with extensive backgrounds in the data industry. Their flagship product, ConfidentialMind, is worlds-first generative AI software infrastructure platform for software engineers. It is a robust software solution designed for on-premises and private cloud AI deployments. This innovative software empowers enterprises to build and host AI applications that utilise confidential data, ensuring top-tier data security without compromises.

Despite their innovative approach and a top-notch team, ConfidentialMind Oy encountered challenges in securing funding in the current market situation (winter 2023-24). With a small team and limited resources, their progress was slower than desired. Additionally, they faced the dual challenge of attracting customers and investors at the same time. As the company expressed, "Any support in this early stage is critical to the future success of our business."

To overcome these challenges, ConfidentialMind Oy engaged with FAIR (Finnish Artificial Intelligence Region), a national hub that promotes AI application in Finland. ConfidentialMind started as one of the first companies registered in our ecosystem in summer 2023.

ConfidentialMind Oy benefitted from the Needs Analysis service, which provided tailored insights and strategic guidance from FAIR EDIH's AI experts. Needs Analysis service is generally the first in the service path and it aims at finding the service needs and requirements of the company. With the results and feedback from Needs Analysis, the company was guided to apply to the prestigious Knights of Nordics event, where they had the opportunity to pitch their company and network with potential investors. Knights of Nordics is a FAIR event organised in Helsinki as a pre-event to Slush, and it aims at matching investors to deeptech startups.

FAIR also provided two expert speaker opportunities for the company in FAIR EDIH's webinar and in a one-day tech event.

As the problem was to grow the team and develop the product further for full enterprise use, the solution was to secure funding. The team has received public funding and had a good track record as successful entrepreneurs. They put in the work and did a great pre-seed fundraising round.

Markku Räsänen, the founder and CEO of ConfidentialMind Oy, expressed his gratitude for FAIR's pivotal role in fostering a robust Finnish AI ecosystem and supporting startups. He highlighted how FAIR's support was instrumental in advancing their mission and enhancing their visibility within the AI community.

ConfidentialMind Oy successfully raised 1.5 million euros in funding. The round consisted of a €1M equity investment with contributions from 3 venture capital funds and private investors across Europe, and a €0.5M loan from the Finnish government. This substantial financial support enables ConfidentialMind Oy to intensify the development of their AI solutions, positioning them for significant growth and innovation in the AI industry.

The benefits and the return-on-investment are expected to be plentiful and increase the security of corporate and sovereign data. According to CEO Räsänen: "This round helps us to get started on our mission to revolutionise enterprise generative AI beyond the cloud. Much of the talk with generative AI has been about the cloud, but there is a new race starting in the edge and in the data centers where much of the most valuable corporate and sovereign data resides. The systems that enable AI in data centers are traditionally difficult to build and maintain. We make development and deployment of generative AI models and applications in enterprise and government data centers as easy – or in some cases even easier – than in the cloud."