A staggering 95% of generative AI pilots at firms are failing, in accordance with a latest report printed by MIT’s NANDA initiative. However relatively than giving up on the expertise altogether, probably the most superior organizations are experimenting with agentic AI programs that may be taught and be supervised.
That’s the place Maisa AI is available in. The year-old startup has constructed its total method across the premise that enterprise automation requires accountable AI brokers, not opaque black bins. With a brand new, $25 million seed spherical led by European VC agency Creandum, it has now launched Maisa Studio, a model-agnostic self-serve platform that helps customers deploy digital staff that may be skilled with pure language.
Whereas which may sound acquainted — paying homage to so-called vibe coding platforms like Cursor and the Creandum-backed Lovable — Maisa argues that its method is basically totally different. “As an alternative of utilizing AI to construct the responses, we use AI to construct the method that must be executed to get to the response — what we name ‘chain-of-work,” Maisa CEO David Villalón informed TechCrunch.
The principal architect behind this course of is Maisa’s co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Manuel Romero, who had beforehand labored with Villalón at Spanish AI startup Clibrain. In 2024, the duo teamed as much as construct an answer to hallucinations after seeing firsthand that “you would not depend on AI,” Villalón mentioned.
The pair isn’t skeptical about AI, however they suppose it gained’t be possible for people to evaluation “three months of labor completed in 5 minutes.” To deal with this, Maisa employs a system referred to as HALP, standing for Human-Augmented LLM Processing. This practice technique works like college students on the blackboard — it asks customers about their wants whereas the digital staff define every step they may observe.
Picture Credit:Maisa AI
The startup additionally developed the Data Processing Unit (KPU), a deterministic system designed to restrict hallucinations. Whereas Maisa began out from this technical problem relatively than a use case, it quickly discovered that its guess on trustworthiness and accountability resonated with firms hoping to use AI to vital duties. As an illustration, purchasers that at present use Maisa in manufacturing embrace a big financial institution, in addition to firms within the automobile manufacturing and power sectors.
By serving these enterprise purchasers, Maisa hopes to place itself as a extra superior type of robotic course of automation (RPA) that unlocks productiveness positive aspects with out requiring firms to depend on inflexible predefined guidelines or intensive handbook programming. To fulfill their wants, the startup additionally gives them both deployment in its safe cloud or via on-premise deployment.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
This enterprise-first method means Maisa’s buyer base continues to be very small in comparison with the hundreds of thousands flocking to freemium vibe-coding platforms. However as these platforms are actually exploring easy methods to win enterprise prospects, Maisa is shifting in the other way with Maisa Studio, which is designed to develop its buyer funnel and ease adoption.
The startup additionally plans to increase with present prospects which have operations in a number of international locations. With twin headquarters in Valencia and San Francisco, Maisa itself already has a foothold within the U.S., as mirrored in its cap desk; its $5 million pre-seed spherical final December was led by the San Francisco-based enterprise companies NFX and Village International.
As well as, TechCrunch realized completely that U.S. agency Forgepoint Capital Worldwide participated on this new spherical by way of its European three way partnership with Spanish financial institution Banco Santander, highlighting its attraction for regulated sectors.
Specializing in advanced use circumstances demanding accountability from non-technical customers may very well be a differentiator for Maisa, whose opponents embrace CrewAI and lots of different AI-powered, business-focused workflow automation merchandise. In a LinkedIn submit, Villalón highlighted this “AI framework gold rush,” warning that the “fast begin” turns into an extended nightmare whenever you want reliability, auditability, or the flexibility to repair what went unsuitable.”
Doubling down on its aim to assist AI scale, Maisa plans to make use of its funding to develop from 35 to as many as 65 folks by the primary quarter of 2026 as a way to meet demand. Beginning within the final quarter of this yr, the startup anticipates speedy progress because it begins serving its ready listing. “We’re going to present the market that there’s a firm that’s delivering what has been promised, and that it’s working,” Villalón mentioned.
