FantAstIque! French start-up Mistral AI raises a €105 million Seed round in its first month of existence

Not a wet week in existence, French start-up Mistral AI has secured a Seed round of €105 million. The AI firm which was only set up a month ago, has reached a €240 million valuation as it (hopefully) becomes Europe's answer to Open AI

The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and includes JCDecaux Holding, Italy's Exor Ventures, Belgium's Sofina, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Xavier Niel and Rodolphe Saade.

The Paris-based AI firm was set up by former Meta (META.O) and Google artificial intelligence researchers, and long time school mates, Timothee Lacroix, Guillaume Lample and Arthur Mensch. 

"We are proud to initiate this global project from France, our home country, and to contribute, at our level, to the emergence of a credible new player in generative artificial intelligence from Europe." says Mensch, Mistral AI's president.