- Lugano-based Prem AI is in search of $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
- Recognized 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 in search of to boost $100 million in a Collection A at a valuation of not 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 completely inside a buyer’s personal infrastructure, whether or not that may be a non-public cloud, a digital non-public cloud, or a totally air-gapped on-premise atmosphere. The product is constructed for organisations the place knowledge leaving the constructing is solely not an choice.
The issue with renting AI
Each API name to OpenAI or Anthropic can also be a knowledge switch. Buying and selling methods, authorized paperwork, and shopper information 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 principally 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 essentially the most delicate knowledge will ultimately refuse to lease intelligence from a 3rd get together, and can demand infrastructure they’ll examine, personal, and management.
How Prem works
The startup combines self-hosted mannequin deployment with what it calls a ready-to-use utility layer, giving clients a full AI stack, from inference to agent automation, with out requiring them to assemble it from components.
Fluso, the brand new workspace product, runs on open-weight fashions, which means each parameter may be audited. Knowledge 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 just isn’t empty. Databricks provides on-premise AI, and open-source fashions from Meta and Mistral give enterprises a place to begin. However Prem packages the complete stack as a completed product quite 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
Recognized 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 could symbolize a 2.5x valuation step-up in roughly two years. The corporate intends to make use of the funds to develop its workforce and speed up product improvement.
