INSEAD AI Venture Lab

We ended year 2025 with a 💥 - Demo Day events in Singapore and Abu Dhabi. A huge congrats to our 6 finalists who pitched at Demo Day Singapore event - Ally Levy Dhruv Verma Lucca Ayerza Fela Akinse Jeevika Makani Xavier Travert. It's heartening to see you share your start up product and vision after 8 weeks of sprint. We are very grateful to our jury members: Alvin Cai Hari V Krishnan Fannie Soubiele. More than just a pitch event, Demo Day is where our INSEAD AI Venture Lab founders connect with investors, strategic partners, and the wider INSEAD community—building the relationships that matter most. The numbers from our Singapore Demo Day tell a story. 📍 Venue: Google Singapore, Developer Space 👥 100+ curated attendees (investors, partners, INSEAD community) 🚀 6 AI-native startup pitches 🏆 1 winner crowned (Fela Akinse) ⏰ 3+ hours of pitches, Q&A, and high-quality networking But the real story isn't in the numbers. It's in the conversations that happened after the pitches. The investor follow-ups. The partnership discussions. The validation and exchange of feedback for your startup. We are also very grateful for our partners: Google Cloud OpenAI Manus AI NVIDIA. 👉 Want to be part of our 2026 AI Founder Sprint? Like this post and comment "KEEN" below to join our waitlist. We'll reach out with exclusive early access to our next cohort. To the next wave of AI founders: This could be you! Hyunjin Kim Rem Koning ❉Thomas Baker Victoria (Vic) Woo, Ph.D. Nety Wu Dahyeon Kim Nancy Hsieh Alexander Chia Martina Blahova Eliza Popa Alexander Gummenscheimer Eric L. Dezma D'souza Tanmay D. Serge Alexander Didenko Candice Grobler Circolo Marco De Giovanni Rahath Aaliya Alvaro Daza Valentín Sierra Learn more: https://lnkd.in/geyZC8bG #AIVentureLab #DemoDay #Singapore #AbuDhabi #AIStartups #Founders #VentureCapital #INSEAD #GoogleForStartups #Innovation

AI Founder Sprint Learnings 🧠 A series where we share how founders are applying their Sprint experience to shape what’s next. Today we feature Obinna Ozurumba, founder of Jxtgotfunded, an AI-powered funding marketplace transforming how African startups and small businesses connect with the right investors. Jxtgotfunded streamlines the fundraising journey by combining AI-driven matchmaking, transparent due diligence, and funding readiness support helping founders showcase their ventures while enabling investors to discover high-potential, investment-ready startups faster. Through the Sprint, Ozurumba is focused on: - Validating key customer segments and refining the startup–investor matching model - Applying learnings on AI ethics, data strategy, and scalability to build a trustworthy scoring system - Prioritizing high-impact features and aligning the product roadmap with market demand #AIFounderSprint #AIventureLab #INSEAD #BuildWithAI #FounderLearnings #AIForGood #StartupFunding #AfricaInnovation

#FounderSpotlight Meet Luis Alberto Rodríguez, founder of Dapper — an AI platform helping companies in emerging markets monitor regulatory changes and risks in real time. In just one year, Dapper has earned the trust of major clients like Coca-Cola and Rappi (YC alumni) by making compliance smarter, faster, and more proactive. Through the AI Founder Sprint, Luis is focused on strengthening Dapper’s product and improving cross-country scalability, ensuring that businesses everywhere can adapt with confidence in a rapidly changing regulatory landscape. Luis also believes that everyone can and should learn AI. 🧠 #AIFounderSprint #AIventureLab #INSEAD #BuildWithAI #FounderSpotlight #RegTech #AIForGood #EmergingMarkets

AI Founder Sprint Learnings 🧠 A series where we share how founders are applying their Sprint experience to shape what’s next. Today we feature Sadick Doufa and his Co-founder — building Cazini, the first employment and background check infrastructure for Africa. By 2040, Africa will represent 40% of the global workforce. Yet, fragmented systems make background verification slow and inconsistent, limiting opportunities and undervaluing talent across the continent. Cazini is on a mission to change that creating a trusted, AI-driven infrastructure that empowers employers to validate credentials efficiently, transparently, and at scale. Through the Sprint, Sadick is focused on refining Cazini’s tech stack and strengthening its product pitch narrative positioning the platform to better serve both users and investors. #AIFounderSprint #AIventureLab #INSEAD #BuildWithAI #FounderLearnings #FutureOfWork #AIForGood #AfricaInnovation

#FounderSpotlight Meet Alexander Veach, founder of Veach AI — transforming how private equity and venture capital teams manage the entire investment lifecycle. Veach AI replaces fragmented data, consultants, and spreadsheets with a structured, intelligent workflow system that streamlines fundraising, deal sourcing, diligence, and exits all in one modular platform. Key features include: - CRM++ Command Center for relationship workflows - Macro–Alpha Dashboard for market-aware timing - Capital Diagnostics Suite for risk and readiness scoring - Auto-generated LP/IC Diligence Reports By mirroring how real investors work, Veach AI accelerates deal timing, improves exit outcomes, and eliminates inefficiencies worth $100K+ per deal. 👏 Celebrating founders designing intelligent systems that elevate decision-making in the investment ecosystem. #AIFounderSprint #AIventureLab #INSEAD #BuildWithAI #FounderSpotlight #VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #FinTechInnovation

AI Founder Sprint Learnings 🧠 A series where we share how founders are applying their Sprint experience to shape what’s next. Today we feature Mohamed SAHILY, founder of spacefit.ai, the world’s first AI-powered Office Design Copilot. Spacefit.ai helps enterprises, architects, and brokers generate data-driven space plans, test-fits, and workplace strategies in seconds automating what used to take weeks. The platform combines parametric control (for adjacencies, daylight access, and safety regulations) with a tenant-centric design philosophy, optimizing not just for efficiency but also for employee well-being and organizational performance. Through the Sprint, Mohamed is focused on strengthening Spacefit.ai’s AI integration and scalability ensuring the platform delivers even more accurate, flexible, and enterprise-ready results while pushing the boundaries of automation in space planning. #AIFounderSprint #AIventureLab #INSEAD #BuildWithAI #FounderLearnings #PropTech #FutureOfWork

🚀 AI moves fast. The real challenge? Building products that keep up without burning time, cost, or accuracy. AI tools are everywhere but turning them into production-ready prototypes is the real test. In our Friday workshop, founders in the AI Founder Sprint 2025 explored the Foundations of Rapid Prototyping with AI, guided through the state of the art in models, reasoning, and prompt engineering. Key takeaways included: 🔹 Which AI models excel at specific tasks and when to use them 🔹 How multimodal capabilities are unlocking new product possibilities 🔹 Prompt engineering strategies that deliver consistent, production-level results At AI Venture Lab, our mission is to equip founders with hands-on, research-driven skills to build ventures that are smarter, faster, and globally scalable. Don’t miss the next one follow us for more insights from our weekly workshops. #AIFounderSprint #AIventureLab #BuildWithAI #INSEAD #AIWorkshops

#FounderSpotlight Meet Yuchen Li, founder of Hunter.AI (YC F24) - an intelligent headhunter agent redefining how companies find and hire top talent. Hunter.AI communicates directly with hiring managers to understand their needs, then uses advanced sourcing capabilities to identify candidates across platforms like GitHub, Google Scholar, X, and other online communities. Its multi-layer conversation engine ensures precision, speed, and smarter matches, transforming what used to take weeks into a streamlined, AI-powered process. Celebrating founders like Yuchen who are using AI to simplify complex systems and unlock new levels of efficiency in the talent ecosystem. 👏 #AIFounderSprint #AIventureLab #INSEAD #BuildWithAI #FounderSpotlight #FutureOfWork #AIRecruitment

AI Founder Sprint Learnings 🧠 A series where we share how founders are applying their Sprint experience to shape what’s next. Today we feature Miranda Anya, MBA, Eng., founder of Pikelo (Speak English), helping French-speaking professionals learn English by chatting in real time with Bella, an AI-powered human-like avatar tutor. Instead of memorizing grammar rules, learners build confidence through real-life conversations making language learning more affordable, accessible, and effective. Through the Sprint, Miranda is focused on: - Enhancing Bella using rapid prototyping, prompt engineering & advanced reasoning techniques - Scaling Pikelo beyond English to more languages - Building connections and collaborations within the founder community Celebrating founders like Miranda who are using AI to unlock human potential and create new opportunities for global learners. 👏 #AIFounderSprint #AIventureLab #INSEAD #BuildWithAI #FounderLearnings #EdTech #AIForGood

Last Friday, founders in the AI Founder Sprint 2025 joined our workshop on Rapid AI Prototyping: Memory, Context Engineering & RAGs, led by Serge Vasylechko & the Sundai Club team. Across industries, sprint participants got hands-on with case studies, tool demos, and guided build exercises. Here are a few takeaways our founders walked away with: 🔹 When to use embeddings, fine-tuning, or retrieval-augmented generation 🔹 How to balance cost–accuracy–latency trade-offs that make or break an AI product 🔹 Why context memory transforms simple apps into scalable AI systems (using Notion AI as a case study) At AI Venture Lab, we’re committed to giving founders practical, research-backed tools to build ventures that last. 👉 Follow us to keep up with future sessions and see how this cohort is building smarter, faster, and with intelligence at the core. #AIFounderSprint #AIventureLab #BuildWithAI #INSEAD #AIWorkshops