According to AIN.UA, the agreement was signed back in December 2023, but the parties have only now emerged into the public arena.
The Ukrainian AI platform Mantis Analytics has attracted $50,000 in investments from the Ukrainian fund ZAS Ventures.
Mantis Analytics is an artificial intelligence-based platform that allows monitoring and analyzing the information space, detecting manipulations and fakes. Mantis Analytics has three co-founders:
Maxym Tereshchenko, CEO - responsible for product and overall company management. He has experience in building data products and working in startups. Ostap Vykhopen, CTO - an expert in machine learning and big data. He has over 20 years of experience in software development. Anton Tarasiuk, Expertise Lead - responsible for covering all methodological issues in the team. His expertise lies in strategic communications.
The founders created it after the onset of Russia's full-scale invasion. Initially, the startup was developed with their own funds, and in 2023, they also managed to receive $25,000 from Brave1 to enhance the platform. Currently, the service cooperates with the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and other state institutions, which accept 80% of Mantis Analytics reports without additional changes from the analyst.
The investor, ZAS Ventures, is a fund founded by Ukrainians Andrii Zinchuk and Artem Volkhonsky in the fall of last year. The company is incorporated in the USA with offices in San Francisco and Kyiv. In addition to Ukrainians, ZAS Ventures also has American partners.
According to investors, this year ZAS Ventures plans to invest in 30 Ukrainian startups with checks of up to $100,000 at the pre-seed stage and, in the future, help them raise a seed round within a year. ZAS Ventures will recommend its portfolio companies to more than 20 other partner funds in the USA and Europe, and is also prepared to make follow-on investments independently.
