Did you know that Mistral, Europe’s major AI firm valued at $6 billion, shares a key figure with another up-and-coming industry player? French health insurance giant Alan may seem unrelated at first glance. Despite its low-key reputation, it provides coverage for over 680,000 individuals in select countries. Yet surprisingly, the common thread tying these two disparate firms together is one person: Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve; co-founder and CEO of Alan, and also co-founding advisor at Mistral.
Bloomberg recently revealed Samuelian-Werve’s significant role in Mistral’s orgin story. Already involved with Alan, he ingeniously foresaw the AI wave prior to GPT-Chat’s emergence, and even attempted to establish an AI non-profit with Station F’s Xavier Niel. Yet when Samuelian-Werve started interacting with Arthur Mensch and rest of Mistral’s founding members, his focus shifted. This interaction led to the establishment of Mistral and simultaneously, a strong advisors’ panel that included Alan’s co-founder and CTO Charles Gorintin and ex-digital minister Cédric O.
It wasn’t just his initial meeting with Mistral’s founders that made an impact. Jean-Charles convinced venture capital firm Lightspeed to lead Mistral’s seed round and played a vital role in bringing key investors on board.
In early 2024, Samuelian-Werve acknowledged the importance of investing in AI. Months later, Alan launched Mo, an AI chatbot with a unique twist: responses are doctor-verified within 15 minute.
Where does this all leave us today? The two startups remain tightly intertwined, sharing an office location and similar strategies. Samuelian-Werve and Mensch meet weekly. But amidst speculations and the allure of lucrative deals, one thing rings clear – for now, Mistral is not for sale.
Original source: Read the full article on TechCrunch
