Backed by Sequoia China and the man who built Marvel Studios, Prem AI seeks $100M to end the era of rented enterprise intelligence: report — TFN

• Lugano-based Prem AI is looking for $100M at a $500M+ valuation to let hedge funds and regulation companies run AI on their very own servers
• It has launched Fluso, an encrypted AI workspace that runs brokers inside a buyer’s personal infrastructure
• Identified backers embody Fan Zhang of Sequoia Capital China and David Maisel, founding chairman of Marvel Studios

Prem AI, a Lugano-based startup that lets hedge funds and regulation companies run synthetic intelligence on their very own servers as an alternative of sending knowledge to OpenAI or Anthropic, is looking for to boost $100 million in a Collection A at a valuation of no less than $500 million, Bloomberg reports.

The corporate expects to shut the spherical within the third quarter of 2026.

The fundraiser comes alongside the launch of Fluso, an encrypted AI workspace that runs brokers and automates duties totally inside a buyer’s personal infrastructure, whether or not that may be a personal cloud, a digital personal cloud, or a completely air-gapped on-premise setting. The product is constructed for organisations the place knowledge leaving the constructing is solely not an possibility.

The issue with renting AI

Each API name to OpenAI or Anthropic can also be an information switch. Buying and selling methods, authorized paperwork, and shopper data are saved on third-party servers ruled by another person’s phrases of service, below a US authorized regime that may compel disclosure.

For a hedge fund or a regulation agency, that isn’t an summary concern. It’s a aggressive and regulatory publicity that compounds over time. The sovereign AI query, as soon as largely a debate about nations and cloud dependency, now applies to any agency whose edge lives in its knowledge.

Simone Giacomelli co-founded SingularityNET, the decentralised AI community, earlier than beginning Prem in 2023. The corporate is constructed round a single architectural wager: that companies dealing with probably the most delicate knowledge will ultimately refuse to lease intelligence from a 3rd get together, and can demand infrastructure they will examine, personal, and management.

How Prem works

The startup combines self-hosted mannequin deployment with what it calls a ready-to-use software layer, giving prospects a full AI stack, from inference to agent automation, with out requiring them to assemble it from elements.

Fluso, the brand new workspace product, runs on open-weight fashions, that means each parameter will be audited. Information by no means enters coaching pipelines. A free tier additionally positions it as a consumer-facing entry level into Prem’s broader infrastructure play.

The self-hosted class will not be empty. Databricks affords on-premise AI, and open-source fashions from Meta and Mistral give enterprises a place to begin. However Prem packages the total stack as a completed product fairly than a toolkit.

The distinction, in Giacomelli’s framing, is the applying layer: safety with out usability is infrastructure that by no means will get used.

Backers and the cash path

Identified buyers from earlier rounds embody Fan Zhang, co-founder of Sequoia Capital China, and David Maisel, the founding chairman of Marvel Studios, who engineered its $4 billion sale to Disney in 2009. Prem has not confirmed which buyers are taking part within the present spherical.

Prem raised a $14 million seed spherical in April 2024, adopted by a $6.1 million bridge at a $200 million valuation. If the Collection A closes above $500 million, it will signify a 2.5x valuation step-up in roughly two years. The corporate intends to make use of the funds to develop its group and speed up product growth.