AI Solutions for Enterprises: Inside Scavenger.ai

Hello, and welcome, everybody. This is Joe from Startupradio dot Joe, your Startupradio podcast and YouTube blog from Germany. Welcome another guest from Frankfurt in our series, Tech Startups Germany, with the European Enterprise Network, Hessen. Hey, Max. How are you doing? I'm fine. Thank you very much for the invitation. Happy to talking to you today. Totally my pleasure. As I said, our enabler today is

Hessen Trade and Invest and the Enterprise Europe Network. This recording was made possible by Hesen Tread and Invest and the Enterprise Europe Network, Hesen. These organizations have made tremendous contribution to helping start up businesses succeed and thrive, providing a range of services from helping to find friends to ongoing partnerships. By taking advantage of these resources, start up companies can network and develop innovative strategies for

success on the international stage. The dedicated support of HDAI and the enterprise you work work Hessen is paramount in providing start up businesses with the tools for lasting success. You can learn more in the show notes down here in the show notes down here below wherever you will looking at this or listening to this. For everybody who's watching, sorry for the red eye, but allergy season is up on us again. Now that we have everything out of the way I'm sorry. That that that

that was a lot of initial stuff. Maximilian, would you like to introduce yourself and how you, an Austrian guy, ended up setting up a AI Startupradio in Frankfurt? Yeah. Sure. Thank you very much. So hi, everyone. My name is Max. I'm 26, and I'm originally from Austria in Vienna, as Sir

already mentioned. And, yeah, how we came up Menninger scavenger here in Frankfurt is actually I was doing an internship already more than a year ago here in Frankfurt where I fell in love with the city, and we got to know the, like, props on the stage to our very good lawyer, doctor Jan Felix Kumpka, who was of big help of all the bureaucracy that's going on around founding a Startupradio who suggested us because we really trusted him to set it up here in Frankfurt where he could be of help

the whole time. So, yeah, started here and stayed here. As everybody can tell, not everybody from Austria need to have an accent like Schwarzenegger. I have to admit right now, I do believe his accent is kind of an act, that people instantly recognize. Oh, that's a kind of branding stuff. You studied in Vienna and balcony. But what I found very interesting, you have been a professional athlete for some time according to your LinkedIn profile, which,

by the way, we are also linking down here. Can you talk a little bit about that, what you did here, and what kind of sports? Sure. Of course. Very happy to. So, yeah, I was playing, hockey from a very young Joe, actually, from 4 years on. And, yeah, I went through, like, on the national level to an international level and was captain of the Austrian youth hockey national team here. Played couple of European championships, won I think in the end, there was 4

championships of the Austrian in the Austrian level. Yeah. It was a really great time looking back into it. And, yeah, I'm busy from time to time. And we're talking about here field hockey, not ice hockey. Right? We're talking about field hockey. For me, it's always clear, but for someone who didn't play field hockey, obviously, ice hockey is the first thing that comes to mind. Okay. You did a few internships, including at Deloitte where we did not met, and you have been at

the Financial Times Challenge. What was this all about? Yes. It was actually a very cool initiative by the Financial Times. Back then, it was supposed to be in London. And luckily, obviously, it was COVID, and I was doing it back from my living room. Nevertheless, the challenge was really, really

cool. It was for 3 days on where you had to basically, the Financial Times gave you the most pressuring issues of the time, and you were supposed to build a Startupradio it that more or less solves those issues. So I would say it was, totally cool. You were given, experts and access to a lot of knowledge, from experts from the Financial Times and could build, in a nutshell, the start up in 3 days that then got accessed by XUEZ. Mhmm. Mhmm. What what was your start up idea?

Our idea was actually back then because it was the time a detector that detects particles in the air to make, like, an early detection system for transmittable diseases like COVID. I I assume they will still be useful in the future. And then you started your own company in January 2020, stopped that and started with scavengerai according to your LinkedIn profile. Can you take us through this journey? Because, you stop Joe company and then you instantly start with another

in an AI company. How did you meet your cofounder? How how did you get started with the idea? Definitely. So back then, I like my background is a bit of a different one. Like, I actually studied business law, which has way more of a law focus than a business focus, which is also Joe reason why I worked first at Deloitte because I said I wanted to get a bit of a background more into business and then also started the first company, which back then was called Walking Art, and

it was more yeah. My first steps into entrepreneurship, I would say, together with a colleague of mine. What we saw during COVID that, like, the art sector is struggling a lot because artists don't have access to art, or, like, to exhibitions anymore and they're art fans. So we said, okay. We're more or less in a nutshell to an online art gallery where they can host online

exhibitions and so on, which was very nice. But then I joined because it was actually a case that I was way more interested in the business side, and I joined Bocconi University in Italy to study management there. And as then, the work required a lot of personal meetings with the artists. It was a local business focused in Vienna.

It was not possible anymore. But, luckily, in Bocconi, I had my lovely cofounder Felix, who is leading the tech part at Scavenger, who I reached out to to very, very early on. And, Yeah. He was a fan of the idea. We talked to it a lot. And yeah. So over long nights and early mornings, we talked in coffee chats at Macquarie University about it and, in the end, decided to fund together. I see. So, basically, you're an Austrian guy and your cofounder

is German? Yes. My cofounder is German. He's from Aachen. From From from Aachen and from Austria, and you end up setting up a company in Frankfurt. That is pretty interesting. How did you get started? Can we first talk about what scavenger does and then how he got the idea to do actually something like that? Because for me, personally, to have, a business lawyer doing AI is is quite a stretch. Definitely. So Felix and me both, before doing our masters, we worked in big

corporates first. And we were basically coming back from our summer internships where we worked in big corporates before, and we saw a problem that all of the companies say that data is super important, yet nobody really likes to deal with it. So you end up that all of the companies have tons of data. They create more and more data every day, but they lack the time and they lack the resources to actually draw any insights out of it. And that was a problem

that I'm sure your listeners, like, also know of that. It's really difficult if in a company you have to take a decision but do not have the necessary insights into your data to actually take that decision. So, yeah, long story short, we came back from that summer internship. We exchanged that idea. And luckily, you got very early on on initial funding. Like, I was still then working with my internship in Frankfurt at a venture builder with focus on software and

AI, where I got more in touch with that. Felix was working before 2 years as a lead in software development, so he also had a bit of more experience in that field. And so, yeah, Felix built a short POC overnight. We reached out to early investors, Scott from Catelligent and Volker Ford and Ashkara, a very early investor early on that believed in the idea, where back then, it was just Felix, me, and the pitch deck and the

POC that he built overnight. And, yeah, then we quit our jobs because we thought it might make more sense to work on this full time than before work and after work. And, yeah, here we are. It is quite interesting. If I wrap it up, my understanding is from what you guys are doing is you have 3 distinct AI tools that help you analyze data you have from your own company, Menninger up data, doing statistical analyzes, and generate an output in in simple language. In which languages

is this available? And can you take us a little bit through the journey? Is, like, 22 of those tools, are they for cleaning, for aggregating data, or how does it work? Yeah. Definitely. So in the end, what we wanna do is offer customers a one stop solution. So they can upload as you mentioned before, they can upload any kind of data. Any kind of data sounds generic, but it's on purpose. It is generic.

So you can imagine you can upload 27 excels, free PDFs, a word, whatsoever, or connect your company databases to it. Yeah. Once you've done that, you can ask a very simple question. Like, normally, you would always ask yourself like, okay. How can I improve my profit? From a

user perspective, that's everything you need to do. And then as you mentioned before, we, in the back, actually have developed 3 different AI tools that are connected together in one workflow to solve the problem of the user in less than 10 seconds, but you can also only use 1 out of the 3 tools if you

want to. And, yeah, actually, very correct, as you mentioned before. The first tool, it all starts with data clean, where we have a tool that automatically detects anomalies inside the datasets, also does all of the statistical data cleaning, and separates the numerical from texture data.

2nd, we save the texture data. We forward the numerical data to the next tool, which is more or less the key of scavenger dotai, which first has an algorithm that detects based on the question you asked, based on the data that got uploaded, what's the right mathematical numerical test to run. But then we don't stop there. We don't run 1. We run, like, 100 of tests simultaneously, choose the one which has the highest statistical fit, also safe that where

already the textual data is waiting. And lastly, we have an interpretation agent that enriches all of it with industry data, looks at the question, looks at what outcome we've generated, and translates all of it into a nice looping dashboard that answers the question that the user asked before. That is pretty interesting. How far along are you? You guys just straight erased. By the way, that was the trigger, while we're talking today. You raised €1,100,000 in pre

seed funding. Investors includes HTGF, the high-tech, By the way, everybody who like to, get to know the CEO down here in the show notes, we link our interview with him and Camp Storm Ventures from Vienna. So you're in pre seed, how far along are you and what kind of data can you work with, and how do your clients look like? Is it like the handyman from around the corner, or is it like the big international banks? Definitely. So, both, actually. All of the options you mentioned below.

Joe, yes, all all of them, basically. So the way what we say at the moment, we launched our 1st MVP back in November 2023. And this MVP, we're at the moment trying out and testing out with pilot partners. Why are we doing that? Because we say, okay. We wanna be as close as we can in development to our potential and future customers while we already generate from that, value for them. So, actually, a win win situation,

ideally. How are our customers look like? I'm actually unlikely not allowed to do some big name dropping here, but we're working with big enterprises, Joe, like, the big ones that you actually know to, like, the classical SMEs in Germany. And, yeah, based on that,

because in the end, the software itself is very, very flexible. It's a very mathematical software that with the LLM layer that we put on top make it accessible for also people who don't necessarily studied statistics or mathematics to understand it, which then I would say in, big enterprises, we always talk to head ops and depart head of departments, and in smaller companies, SMEs, we always talk to the c level executives. And yeah.

Because you also asked before, and I totally forgot to answer it, like, the software at the moment is available in English, but it's no problem to switch language. It also works in Italian, German, French, and Spanish, if I remember correctly so far. But we're happy to add another language if the language barrier should not be covered by that yet. Mhmm. There is right now a lot of tools out there. There's like a sea of tools in data analytics and AI. How are you guys different

here? Definitely. I mean, we are obviously in a client. We do look at the competition, and we see that it's a very crowded space. Yet one thing we've always tried to mention is, like, we really wanna live by that, is that in the end, you have a technology, like, at the moment, it's artificial intelligence that you want to use not for the sake of using artificial intelligence, but to actually solve the problem of the user, which in the

end is the good thing. How you solve it, the user doesn't care. So the way that we say it is, like, yeah, we have developed, in the end, its free AI tools that are AI powered, which are, at the moment, the best possible

way to solve the problem for the user. But as described before, we have developed this one stop solutions that is powered by the free tools where the user literally doesn't have to do anything else than throw all of the data in, ask the questions, and we do all the analytics more or less like a consulting project on a click for them. You're not permitted to drop names, but can you drop industries? And what kind of industries are your customers right now working? Yes. Definitely.

So we're working a lot in the food and beverage sector. We're working a bit in the, in the sports sector as well because also there, there's a lot of data available. And we're working also with the classical, I would say, like, German hidden champions, let's say it like that. Mhmm. Scalability is often a challenge for AI startups. How do you guys plan to scale in terms of operations and infrastructure? Definitely. So in terms of infrastructure, Felix and the tech team here did a

really, really great job and set everything up in a very modular structure. In tech terms, it's called microservices, which allows us to have a very, very scalable approach of the software. Also at the moment, like, which is one of the few of the reasons why we got the cool investment is that we're really set up for scalability, and our costs in that case are very, very low. So that's very nice. In operational levels, like always, it's something you have to do with time. We

are gonna grow. Like, with the investments, we're gonna grow up to 20 people because, obviously, operational load is getting heavier. But, like, we're also covered with the investment to, to lift that definitely. Mhmm. You talked about investments. After pre seed, it usually suggests that you want to do a siege round. What are you guys' long term goals? And, when when you go to the website, you can basically register

to be a test client. Do you have any guesstimate when you'll be open to all clients out there? Yes. That's a very perfect concession. Love to love to tease it out here at this at this point. So, yeah, actually, at the end of Q2 2024, so, like, in end of June, we're gonna launch the whole software live. So from then on, you can actually you don't need to be a test partner anymore, which obviously also has its advantages. Joe if you still want to be a test partner, happy to work

with you. Yet from end of June 2024, your whole software is gonna go live. Mhmm. I see. I see. What other plans do you have? We're now drifting a little bit into into the outlook area, in terms of geography, but I would believe everybody from the European Union is pretty safe in throwing your data into the, analytics tool because you're based in the European Union. Do you plan to expand for international clients?

Yes. Definitely. Like, first grade that you mentioned it, like, at the moment, which is very, very important for all our customers that we have so far, is that all our servers, our databases are in actually in Frankfurt in Germany as well and are 100% GDPR compliant, which

obviously is is huge. So I would say, like, also due to, as mentioned before, the language variant because we're already set up very, very well in terms of data security, which in Europe obviously is way more protected than when you look to the Asian market or the American market. Joe I would say, like, also in case of those crucial issues, we're already set up for expansion here. Mhmm. You already have

4 investors. Mhmm. I I was wondering, and for most people who are listening to this are wondering, are you open to talk to new investors? Yes. Definitely. I mean, like, before the round, after the round, and vice versa, I would say. So we're always open to talking to new investors. Actually, like, straight after the free seed round, straight after the closing, we already went into talks with new investors for the seed round, which we still is far away. Like, should be closed at the end of

2025. But it's also always great to talk to investors and interesting people during times where there is not the regular fundraising chaos. So, yeah, very happy to also get in touch now. The regular fundraising chaos. Ah, yeah. I see. Usually, a lot of people are out here, looking for potential employers. Are you guys also looking for new people out there for new hires? Yes. Definitely.

Always. Like, we know that one of the key assets we have at the moment is great people, and our product and our company is only as good as the people that we have on board. So, yes, 100%. We are actually trying to as said before, we're trying to grow from 10 to 20 people this year, meaning that we have still 10 spots available, if you're hearing this. Still, there's a bit of a focus on the tech team, yet we're also slow and steady trying to set up the business

side. So, actually, no matter which background, we're always happy. We also have a spontaneous application field at the moment on the website. So always happy to receive application from bright people. Everybody who'd like to talk to you, we do have the LinkedIn profile of your LinkedIn, our blog post, as well as your career website in our show notes here.

Since this is an interview with Hessen Trade and Invest, you would be, if you would like to address the decision makers here in the state by, like, one question, one idea for improvement, something like that. What what will you say to them? What would your, what what would be your wish for the future? Definitely. So first of all, I think that's actually, there are a lot of cool things going on right now in Frankfurt with the lately founded AI Hub, the Kaee Hub, also has CNEI and

so on. Yet I do think that especially in the early stage of a start up, like, the less bureaucracy you have, the better. As also in the tech market, speed to market is absolutely crucial. And I remember we as well, we were sitting in front of a lot of applications that back then, like, it takes a lot of time. You're not allowed to be funded, like, officially incorporated back then. So I think those bureaucratic hurdles are quite steep at the moment still.

So reducing that and making it actually easier for start ups to catch up with competition as fast because, as mentioned before, speed is one of the most important things in during this phase. Mhmm. I see. So get more speed. But but I have to admit that could be something I say, although for Germany, not sure what they can do about it here. Maximilian, it was again a pleasure to have you here. Thank you for Hessen Tried TO Invest and Enterprise Your Work Network

for sponsoring this podcast. It was a pleasure to have you here. Thank you. Thank you very much for the invitation. It was really fun. Thank you. Have a good day. Bye bye.