Autentic AI, a Spanish market research startup, has raised €1.5 million, about $1.7 million, in a pre-seed round. Baobab Ventures, Lanai Ventures, Acurio Ventures and Masia VC invested.

The company was co-founded by co-CEO Dani Diestre, Aniol Carreras and Jacob Bamio.

What Autentic AI Does

Traditional qualitative research is slow and expensive. Recruiting participants, scheduling interviews, running them and analyzing the results can take weeks or months, and a single study can cost a large brand six figures.

Autentic AI uses AI interviewers to talk with hundreds of consumers and industry experts at the same time. Human researchers then interpret the findings and add context. Participants are verified and paid for their time, and every insight in a final report links to video evidence from the interviews, so clients can see exactly where a conclusion came from. Results can be segmented by age, region or product usage.

The company says it now runs about 1,000 interviews a day and expects to pass 400,000 by the end of 2026. It serves four sectors: consumer packaged goods, retail, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, and strategy consulting and private equity.

The Pitch

Diestre's argument is about frequency. When a study costs around €100,000 and takes three months, companies cannot run one every time they have a question. Autentic AI wants research to become something brands do weekly rather than a few times a year.

How the Money Will Be Used

The funding will go toward automating more of the research process and building Autentic AI's own network of verified consumers and industry experts. That would reduce its reliance on third-party survey panels, which are widely criticized for fraud and low-quality responses.

Why It Matters

Market research is one of the industries AI is changing fastest. A wave of startups is using conversational AI to replace surveys and focus groups, promising depth at survey-like speed and cost. Autentic AI's focus on verified participants and video-backed findings addresses the category's main weakness: whether clients can trust that the people being interviewed are real and that the AI's summaries reflect what they actually said.

For a pre-seed company, a daily volume of 1,000 interviews and clients across consumer goods, pharma and private equity is notable traction, and gives Autentic AI a base to build toward a larger raise.

Source

Tech.eu — "Spanish Autentic AI raises €1.5M to accelerate AI-powered market research"