Paris-based startup Mistral AI has successfully closed its Series B funding round, securing €600 million (£502 million) in a mix of equity and debt.
This latest injection of capital, led by General Catalyst, boosts the company’s valuation to an impressive €6 billion (£5 billion).
Mistral AI, a relative newcomer in the AI landscape, initially made headlines last year with a substantial $112 million (£89 million) seed round. The company was established by former Meta and DeepMind experts with the ambitious goal of challenging AI powerhouses like OpenAI and Anthropic.
Groundbreaking Models and Open-Source Commitment
Mistral AI has made significant strides in developing foundational models, aiming to rival the best in the industry, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, Anthropic’s Claude 3, and Meta’s Llama 3. True to its innovative ambition, Mistral AI has released several pre-trained and fine-tuned models under open-source licenses, including Mistral 7B, Mistral 8x7B, and Mistral 8x22B, all available under the Apache 2.0 license.
This license permits unrestricted use and reproduction, provided proper attribution is given.
In addition to open-source offerings, Mistral AI has developed proprietary models like Mistral Large, designed for API-first product repackaging. Their generative AI model for coding, Codestral, comes with a restrictive license that prohibits its outputs from commercial use.
Companies looking to leverage Mistral Large can access it through a paid API, while the company also offers a free-to-use chat assistant named Le Chat.
Strategic Partnerships and Investor Confidence
Mistral AI has secured strategic distribution partnerships with cloud providers, including Microsoft Azure. Notably, Microsoft is a minor shareholder in the startup, underscoring its belief in Mistral AI’s potential.
Expressing enthusiasm about the funding round, Mistral AI co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch stated, “I am delighted to see new and existing investors renew their confidence in our business and provide new support for its expansion. This new round puts us in a unique position to push the frontier of AI and bring state-of-the-art technology to everyone’s hands. It guarantees the company’s continued independence, which remains fully under the founders’ control.”
Extensive Investor Support
The Series B round saw Mistral AI raising €468 million (£391 million) in equity and €132 million (£111 million) in debt. General Catalyst, an existing investor, led this round.
The impressive list of investors includes major names such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, and Salesforce Ventures.
Other notable investors encompass Belfius, Bertelsmann Investment, BNP Paribas, Bpifrance (through its Digital Venture fund), Cisco, Eurazeo, Headline, Hanwha Asset Management’s venture fund, IBM, Korelya Capital, Latitude, Millennium New Horizons, Sanabil Investments, ServiceNow, and SV Angel.
Future Prospects
Over the past 18 months, Mistral AI has garnered attention for its foundational models.
The next challenge for the startup is to attract corporate customers and convert its engineering achievements into sustainable revenue streams.
With substantial backing and innovative technology, Mistral AI is well-positioned to make a significant impact on the AI industry.
Stay tuned for more updates on Mistral AI and the evolving AI landscape.
