The Ukrainian AI platform Mantis Analytics has raised $50,000 in a pre-seed round coming from ZAS Ventures. The investment was done in December 2023, and issued in March 2024, InVenture informs.
- Established in 2023 by Anton Tarasyuk, Maksym Tereshchenko, Ostap Vykhopen, Mantis Analytics is an AI powered platform for real-time information field monitoring. It gathers data from media, social networks and other sources, analyzes it and identifies who communicates what and how, detects fakes.
- The idea for the platform emerged at the onset of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. A team of Ukrainian programmers came up with a plan to fight propaganda using AI back then. Now, Mantis Analytics platform is used to monitor the Russian information environment in real time. The startup claims that their methods and tools proved their efficiency during the Russia–Ukraine war, helping government and security agencies to solve life-and-death problems.
- Headquartered in Wilmington, Mantis Analytics partners with multiple Ukrainian government agencies, including the National Security and Defense Council.
- Previously, the startup received a $25,000 grant from the Ukrainian defense technology cluster Brave1 to work towards improving the platform.
- The current investment was made by ZAS Ventures, a fund based in Kyiv and San Francisco that connects European tech startups and helps them with leverage in the US market, offering ticket sizes ranging from $50,000 to $500,000. The fund aims to invest up to $100,000 in pre-seed funding for 30 Ukrainian startups to assist them in securing a seed round within a year.
“Mantis Analytics attracted the most powerful team in Eastern Europe at the start and created a startup that works in both the public and private sectors. The plan is to enter foreign markets, the USA and Europe.” Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, commented via LinkedIn.
- With the $50,000 Mantis Analytics plans to expand in the US and Europe and work towards improving its platform.
