A new AI gaming startup from the founders of Lithuanian Unicorn Nord Security Enterprises are starting to use AI to help their projects in production, with greater visibility; Better visibility into security and adaptation to large language models (LLMs);
Nexos.aiAs the startup is called, it is the work of Tomas Okmanas (pictured above) and Eimantas SabaliauskasHe built one of the best-known brands not only in Lithuania but throughout Europe. Nord Security, best known for its flagship VPN product NordVPN, has hit the road after its first 10 years. Covers $100 million in investment. Valued at $1.6 billion by 2022 (value increased later). Valued at $3 billion. during subsequent fundraising.).
Their new company is going stealth today with $8 million in funding from top-tier backers, including a top investor. Index VenturesIt made its first investment in Lithuania.
“We've known Thomas and the work he's done for years. So when I heard he was building a new company in the AI space, I was willing to take some late (early) stage venture capital money. Partner at Index Ventures; Hannah brand told TechCrunch.
Other notable investors include Creandum and CEOs of Dig Ventures and Datadog; Klarna Prominent angels such as Supercell and Wix also participated.
Capitalizing on a catalyst.
Currently, teams looking to put their AI into production need to engage a myriad of tools, likely involving recruiting and building teams with the necessary expertise. This is where you want to log in to Nexos.ai.
“I see a big, big gap in running AI as a pilot and in production,” Okmanas said in an interview with TechCrunch. “When you test AI in your lab, it can work and be useful, but especially when you want to put it into production in enterprises, how do you ensure high availability? How do you ensure security? How do you manage costs?”
Nord Security has been around for more than a decade, but about five years ago it was folded into an umbrella company. Tesoneteach incubator Portfolio More than two dozen businesses. One of them is a web-hosting company. HostingerRecently added. AI-enabled smarts for its website builder. Okmanas, a Hostinger board member and shareholder, says some of the issues they faced served as catalysts for what would eventually become Nexos.ai.
“We wanted to use AI in our website builder, so we opened OpenAI and started testing and producing it,” Okmanas said. “They asked for $150,000 in August. For what? Why was it so expensive? There was no visibility.”
When OpenAI went down a few times. To more easily deploy an “ecosystem of increasingly complex AI models” that organizations will need; Okmanas believed that something had to be done to manage and improve it.
Through a simple API (application programming interface), users can access more than 200 popular existing AI models, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, to smaller, more sophisticated LLMs. The idea is that if OpenAI goes down, a company can temporarily (automatically) switch to another provider without stepping in. or if the costs involved in entering a particular LLM explode for any reason. A firm may switch to another to reduce their costs.
Nexos.ai adds “intelligent caching” to the mix — if a particular query is repeated by multiple users. The system can switch to its own database instead of continuing to link to LLM, which can be expensive.
On the security and compliance fronts, Nexos.ai prevents individual's confidential data from being sent to LLM service providers; Or if an employee leaves the company, their access can be terminated immediately.
There is no elephant in the room. One reason. Enterprises are hesitant to embrace AI. healthcare companies; Banks or insurance companies have a tough problem with data security — it's impossible to trust LLM providers with all their sensitive information. Hostinger itself is worth mentioning. In 2019, there was a data breach. and NordVPN He was also hacked. The past – the type of attack that all companies face today.
This raises the question of how Nexos.ai handles that data, as it hosts everything on its own infrastructure. The company will likely offer self-hosting in the future and already supports integration with companies' own internal LLMs, Okmanas said.
There are safeguards to detect when data such as personally identifiable information (PII) is sent — in such cases; It can redirect data back to the original company's LLMs or database. If an inquiry is generally Like a customer asking an AI agent for details about their location and opening hours; The query will be handled by Nexos.ai.
From idea to inception
From an idea to a formal incorporation, Nexos.ai took about six weeks, and the momentum to get funding was huge, despite the pedigree of the founders. Most of the parts are timing.
“I feel like we've finally gotten past the AI hype, and now the real-world applications are coming,” Seal continued. “All big businesses are realizing that this really makes sense and they need to adopt AI at scale. Now is the time to catch up with infrastructure models.”
However, the speed of execution is evident because of the wider organizational structure at Tesonet, which has around 4,000 employees in its portfolio. This allowed Okmanas to quickly assemble a team of about 30 people he knew and trusted to work full-time on Nexos.ai.
“We have these teams that we can really collaborate with, they've been working together for years, we don't have to tell them what's what,” Okmanas said. “I'll hire from outside, but it takes a lot more time”
Although Nexos.ai's platform is scheduled to launch at the end of March, It's already working with a number of “beta customers and design partners,” Okmanas said.