The story from Mistral has an insuretech startup at its heart

If you’ve been following the AI ​​industry, Mistral should be a familiar name here. French AI startups worth $6 billion to calculate is arguably the largest AI company working on startup brands in Europe.

Alanion the other hand, it is not well known. The health insurance unicorn has been quietly growing to become your digital health partner. More than 680,000 people have Alan insurance in a few countries.

The partnership between the two companies is Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve, Alan’s co-founder and Mistral’s co-founding advisor.

Bloomberg published interesting story explaining its role and other information about Mistral’s history. “Arthur Mensch is the leader of the French AI group Mistral, but the CEO of another company is very important in its valuation of $ 6 billion,” writes Bloomberg. Although Samuelian-Werve has been listed as an associate consultant since Mistral’s inception, no one has given him much credit for the establishment and growth of the French AI company.

According to Bloomberg, Samuelian-Werve saw the AI ​​boom coming before ChatGPT was released. He reached out to Xavier Niel, the telecom billionaire behind it Train F and Kima Venturescreating a useless AI.

But when Samuelian-Werve met Arthur Mensch and his co-founders of Mistral, he abandoned the unprofitable idea in favor of what is now known as Mistral. It was around this time that Alan’s co-founder and CTO Charles Gorintin and former digital minister Cédric O also became mentors at the start-up of the Paris-based AI group.

According to Bloomberg, Samuelian-Werve convinced Lightspeed to lead Mistral’s seeds and connected with many of the investors who ended up backing the AI ​​startup. We’ve reached out to Mistral to discuss the story, as well as the history behind Samuelian-Werve’s inception and growth. We will update this post with any new information we receive.

In February 2024, Samuelian-Werve mentioned his interest in artificial intelligence provided Alan’s financial results.

“We continue to invest in AI at Alan. As you know, I’m a co-founder and a member of the board of Misral. But this just means that we have been investing in AI for a long time at Alan – even before AI became popular – all to reduce operating costs, to be more efficient more in the market, providing the best services, but also creating new jobs,” Samwelian-Werve said at the time. “And in 2024 we will be announcing some new projects that are related to artificial AI and that is very exciting for us.”

In November 2024, Alan to inform an AI-powered chatbot called Mo. What makes Mo different from ordinary chatbots is that the answers are reviewed by a doctor every 15 minutes. They can confirm medical advice or improve what is said in the conversation.

What about Xavier Niel? He finished giving money Kyutaia French AI research lab focused on (literally) open source AI development. But he did not part ways with Mistral, as he also invested in Mistral plant around.

Today, Mistral’s office is still in the same building as Alan’s, near the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris. Samuelian-Werve and Mensch still meet once a week to discuss the Mistral strategy. Alan is a shareholder in Mistral.

In a Bloomberg report, Samuelian-Werve also stated that Mistral is not for sale, confirming what Mensch said. a few days ago at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The topic – and the collaboration between Alan and Mistral – will come up again next month at the AI ​​Action Summit in Paris. But it is good to remember that you often hear that a company is not for sale when a company and sales – or that other shareholders are forcing a sale.