Wodan AI, the Hispano-Belgian startup focused on executing artificial intelligence models on encrypted data, has announced the closure of a pre-seed round of two million euros. The operation was led by JME Ventures, Swanlaab, and Adara Ventures, with additional participation from Scale Fund, and aims to strengthen the development of a "sovereign AI" in Europe. According to the company's statement, the investment will consolidate its technological infrastructure and position Wodan AI as a European leader in secure and private AI solutions, a key aspect for the digital autonomy of the European Union. Wodan AI's technology, founded by Bob Dubois and Manuel Pérez Yllan, is based on homomorphic encryption, enabling the execution of Machine Learning, Computer Vision, and large language models (LLMs) directly on encrypted data, ensuring privacy and compliance with European regulations. The funds raised will be used to expand the R&D team, accelerate technical development, and expand the platform towards advanced encrypted Computer Vision models and LLMs. The goal is to become the first European company capable of applying these technologies at scale, as well as to strengthen commercial capacity and advance agreements with organizations across Europe. Juan Revuelta, a partner at Swanlaab, emphasized their support for teams capable of leading the next technological wave, highlighting that Wodan AI's infrastructure is essential for the safe and scalable adoption of AI in companies. Additionally, the company will move its global headquarters to Madrid and concentrate its entire R&D team in Spain, thus consolidating the country as a strategic center for its growth in Europe and Latin America. Currently, Wodan AI is already collaborating on pilot projects with a Spanish financial entity and plans to operate from Madrid for both continents. Manuel Pérez Yllan, co-founder and CTO, noted that Spain has the necessary talent to develop critical sovereign AI technologies and aims to make Madrid a European reference hub for private and secure AI. Source: europapress.es