The Barcelona-based startup Autentic AI leverages machine learning to streamline market research by running simultaneous interviews with hundreds of consumers and sector specialists. The €1.5 million pre-seed round, backed by Baobab Ventures, Lanai Ventures, Acurio Ventures and Masia VC, will fund expanded automation capabilities and the construction of an in-house participant pool.
Dani Diestre, Aniol Carreras and Jacob Bamio established Autentic AI to tackle the expense and duration inherent in conventional market research methodologies. The platform pairs AI-driven interview sessions with human analysts who contextualize findings and extract actionable insights from the data.
Traditional research projects often demand substantial budgets and extended timelines, forcing companies to conduct studies infrequently. Autentic AI aims to democratize access to consumer feedback by enabling businesses to run research initiatives on a weekly basis rather than quarterly or annually.
When a study costs €100,000 and takes three months, companies cannot run one every time they need an answer. By the time the findings arrive, the market may have moved on. The real cost is making important decisions without hearing from customers. At Autentic, AI conducts the interviews and researchers interpret what the answers mean. We want research to be something companies can do every week.
Dani Diestre, co-founder and co-CEO of Autentic AI
The startup currently executes approximately 1,000 interviews daily and projects completing over 400,000 by the close of 2026. Its client base spans four primary verticals: fast-moving consumer goods, retail, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, and strategy consulting and private equity.
To ensure research credibility, Autentic AI engages compensated participants whose identities are verified. Each conclusion is anchored to video documentation from the corresponding interviews, enabling clients to examine the underlying responses. The system identifies patterns and correlations across conversations while enabling results to be filtered by demographics, geography or consumption patterns.
The fresh capital will accelerate the automation of Autentic AI's research workflows and establish a proprietary network of vetted consumers and industry specialists. Building this internal infrastructure will strengthen quality assurance and decrease dependence on external research panels.
Source: Tech.eu
