The French startup company known as H AI has raised a smashing $220 million dollars in the early stages of fundraising.
It is uncommon to learn that a seed round has raised over $10 million. The Paris-based startup H, formerly Holistic AI, recently disclosed the completion of a $220 million pilot round only a few months after its establishment.
It has raised a substantial amount of capital in such a short period of time because it is an AI startup developing novel models and has an impressive founding team. Charles Kantor, co-founder and current CEO of the venture, was a Stanford University researcher.
The remaining four co-founders were all former employees of DeepMind, a Google-owned artificial intelligence company. During his tenure as research director at DeepMind, Karl Tuyls directed multi-agent research and game theory. As a principal scientist, Laurent Sifre significantly contributed to several flagship initiatives at DeepMind, including AlphaGo, AlphaFold, and AlphaStar. He has also recently contributed to Google’s Gemini and Gemma AI models. H’s future senior scientist, Daan Wierstra, was a founding member of DeepMind. Finally, Julien Perolat was employed by DeepMind to research game theory and multi-agent systems.
As you may have guessed, H will be developing AI agents, which are automated systems capable of carrying out duties that have customarily been executed by humans. According to the company’s minimalist website, H is developing “avant-garde action models to increase employee productivity.”
The startup’s investors include:
- Several prominent venture capital funds.
- Billionaires (or their family offices).
- Strategic supporters.
Notable individuals such as Xavier Niel, Yuri Milner, Eric Schmidt, Bernard Arnault (through Aglaé Ventures), and Motier Ventures (the family office of the proprietors of the Galeries Lafayette Group) are included on the billionaire list.
Accel, Bpifrance’s Large Venture Fund, Creandum, Elaia Partners, Eurazeo, FirstMark Capital, and Visionaries Club are among the venture capitalists on the list.
A small number of industrial investors, such as Amazon and Samsung, remain. Notably, UiPath maintains an investment position in H. H will receive assistance from the European robotic process automation unicorn in partnership formation and commercialization.
A prior Bloomberg report indicated that investors distribute their obligations between convertible debt and equity. Approximately 40% of the initial financing is comprised of traditional equity investments; therefore, H has sold shares in exchange for cash.
Once H raises an additional round of funding, the remaining amount will be converted to equity. The company’s future valuation will determine the investors’ interest in this debt portion.
The H founding team already consists of twenty-five engineers and scientists, which signifies that the venture intends to advance rapidly. In contrast, Mistral AI, another well-funded AI firm, has adopted a considerably more cautious approach to the recruitment process.
Additionally, H must raise substantial capital to purchase computing power and datasets. The organization asserts its aspiration to achieve complete artificial general intelligence (AGI), a theoretical construct in which AI demonstrates intellect comparable to humans across a broad spectrum of tasks. However, in all honesty, that is merely a marketing ploy, given that the occurrence of AGI is uncertain and difficult to predict.
Last year, TechCrunch reported that Paris has emerged as a mecca for AI startups and talent. Although Mistral AI may be the most well-known company in the area, dozens of tech founders have chosen to establish themselves in the French capital with an artificial intelligence focus.
Historically, tech titans, such as Google and Facebook, have established AI research centers in Paris and London and gained access to funding. Although San Francisco is home to the most significant AI ventures, including OpenAI and Anthropic, AI company-building ecosystems also shape Paris and London.
