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If you ’ve been following the AI diligence , Mistralshould be a familiar name by now . The French AI startup with a $ 6 billionvaluationis arguably the biggest AI company work on foundation models in Europe .
Alan , on the other hand , is n’t as well known . The health insurance unicorn has been quietly growing to become a digital companion for your wellness . Over 680,000 the great unwashed are cover by Alan ’s indemnity in a handful of nation .
The connection between those two companies is Jean - Charles Samuelian - Werve , Alan ’s carbon monoxide - founder CEO and Mistral ’s co - founding advisor .
Bloomberg ’s publisheda curious storyexplaining his persona and some insights into Mistral ’s origin story . “ Arthur Mensch is the public expression of Gallic AI fighter Mistral , but another startup ’s CEO has been critical to its $ 6 billion valuation , ” Bloomberg indite . While Samuelian - Werve has been list as a co - founding advisor since the inception of Mistral , no one had quite ascribe so much course credit to him in the founding and growth of the French AI company .
According to Bloomberg , Samuelian - Werve see the AI roaring coming before the release of ChatGPT . He first reached out to Xavier Niel , the telecom billionaire behindStation FandKima Ventures , to produce an AI nonprofit .
But when Samuelian - Werve met Arthur Mensch and Mistral ’s other co - founder , he dropped the nonprofit mind in favor of what is now have it away as Mistral . It was around that same time that Alan ’s other carbon monoxide - laminitis and CTO Charles Gorintin , as well as former digital minister Cédric O also became launch advisors to the Paris - base AI Jagganath .
accord to Bloomberg , Samuelian - Werve convinced Lightspeed to top Mistral ’s seed round and contacted many of the investor who ended up plump for the AI startup . We have reached out to Mistral for a reception to the story , and the credit it impute to Samuelian - Werve in its instauration and growth . We will update this post with any new information we get .
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In February 2024 , Samuelian - Werve mentioned his pursuit in artificial intelligence when hepresentedAlan ’s fiscal results .
“ We continue to indue in AI throughout Alan . As you may get it on , I ’m a Colorado - laminitis and plank member of Mistral . But that just represents the fact that we ’ve been investing for a very long time in AI at Alan — even before the reproductive AI buzz — both to reduce our management monetary value , be the most efficient on the grocery store , ply the best services , and also to create new services , ” Samuelian - Werve say at the metre . “ And certainly in 2024 we ’ll be announce some unexampled services that are related to productive AI and that are very exciting for us . ”
In November 2024 , Alanintroducedan AI - power chatbot prognosticate Mo. What makes Mo different from regular chatbots is that reply are checked by a MD within 15 second . They can either confirm the medical advice or correct what has been said in the conversation .
As for Xavier Niel ? He ended up fundingKyutai , a French AI research lab focus on ( truly ) open seed AI development . But he did n’t completely part ways with Mistral , as he also indue in Mistral’sseed round .
Today , Mistral ’s place is still place in the same building as Alan ’s office staff , near the Canal Saint - Martin in Paris . Samuelian - Werve and Mensch still encounter once a calendar week to hash out Mistral ’s scheme . Alan is also a shareholder in Mistral .
In the Bloomberg profile , Samuelian - Werve reiterate that Mistral is not for sale , confirming what Mensch saida few days agoat the World Economic Forum in Davos . This subject — as well as the link between Alan and Mistral — will sure come up once again next calendar month during the AI Action Summit in Paris . But it ’s worth remembering that you often find out that a company is not for sale when a companyisfor sales agreement — or at least that some shareholders are exercise press to deal .
