A new AI orchestration startup from the founders of Lithuanian unicorn Nord Security will initially focus on improving the visibility, security, and adaptability of large-scale language models (LLMs) to help enterprises bring AI projects to production. We are currently working on supporting the implementation of this technology.
The startup, called Nexos.ai, is the brainchild of Tomas Okmanas (pictured above) and Eimantas Savariauskas, who have built one of the most recognizable brands not only in Lithuania but throughout Europe. Best known for its flagship VPN product, NordVPN, Nord Security enjoyed a successful first decade of business, taking on a massive $100 million investment in 2022 at a valuation of $1.6 billion ( Subsequent funding raised the valuation to $3 billion).
Their new company exited in stealth today with $8 million in funding from a number of high-profile backers, including lead investor Index Ventures, which made its first investment in Lithuania.
“We have known Thomas and his work for many years, so as soon as we heard that he was starting a new company in the AI field, we decided to finally accept venture capital funding in this field. [early] Hannah Seal, partner at Index Ventures, told TechCrunch.
Other notable investors included Creandum and Dig Ventures, as well as notable angels including the CEOs of Datadog, Klarna, Supercell, and Wix.
Utilize catalysts
Today, teams wanting to bring AI into production must connect a myriad of tools, which can include hiring and building a team with the necessary skills. This is where Nexos.ai wants to intervene.
“We found that there was a huge gap between running AI as a pilot and moving it into production,” Okmanas said in an interview with TechCrunch. “When you're testing AI in the lab, it may work well and be useful, but when you want to deploy AI in production, especially in the enterprise, how do you ensure high availability?Security How do you ensure that? How do you manage costs?”
Nord Security has been around for more than a decade, but five years ago it was merged into a subsidiary called Tesonet, an incubator with a portfolio of more than 20 businesses. One such company is web hosting company Hostinger, which recently added AI-enabled smart features to its website building tools. Okmanas, a Hostinger board member and shareholder, said some of the problems he encountered led to the creation of what would become Nexos.ai.
“We wanted to embrace AI in our website builder, so we enabled OpenAI, started testing it, and put it into production,” says Okmanas. “I got a $150,000 bill in August. For what? Why was it so expensive? There was no visibility at all.”
AI Website Builder on Hostinger Image Credit: Hostinger
And when OpenAI went down a few times, Okmanas decided to do something to make it easier to deploy, manage, and optimize the “increasingly complex ecosystem of AI models” that organizations might need. I was convinced that I needed to do this.
Through a simple API (Application Programming Interface), customers can access over 200 AI models, from large incumbents like OpenAI and Anthropic to smaller, niche LLMs. The idea is that if OpenAI goes down, companies can temporarily (and automatically) switch to another provider without disrupting the status quo. Alternatively, if for some reason the cost of accessing a particular LLM suddenly increases, a company can move to another LLM to reduce costs.
Nexos.ai also introduces “intelligent caching.” If a particular question is repeated by multiple users, the system can rely on its own database rather than continuing to utilize LLM, which can be costly.
In terms of security and compliance, Nexos.ai also prohibits individuals from transmitting personal data to LLM providers. Additionally, if an employee leaves the company, their access will be immediately terminated.
Nexos.ai Image credit: Nexos.ai
But you can't escape this problem. One of the reasons companies are hesitant to adopt AI is the thorny issue of data security. Healthcare companies, banks, and insurance companies simply cannot trust LLM providers with all their confidential information. . It's worth noting that Hostinger itself suffered a data breach in 2019, and NordVPN has also been hacked in the past. It's the kind of attack that all businesses face today.
This raises questions about how Nexos.ai handles such data, given that it hosts everything on its own infrastructure. Okmanas said the company will likely offer self-hosting in the future and already supports integration with companies' own in-house LLMs.
It also has guardrails to detect when data such as personally identifiable information (PII) is submitted. In such cases, data can be rerouted to the originating company's own LLM or database. However, if the query is common, such as a customer asking an AI agent for location or business hours details, that query will be handled on the Nexos.ai side.
From idea to start
It took about six weeks for Nexos.ai to go from an idea to officially founded. The speed of securing funding was largely due to the pedigree of the founders, but a big part of it was simply timing.
“I feel like we’ve finally moved beyond the AI hype, and now we’re seeing real-world applications,” Seal added. “All large enterprises recognize this is very meaningful and need to deploy AI at scale, and now is the time for their infrastructure to catch up with the model.”
However, the speed of execution was substantially due to Tesonet's broader organizational structure, which has approximately 4,000 employees across its portfolio. This allowed Okmanas to quickly assemble a team of about 30 people he knew and trusted to work on Nexos.ai full-time.
“We have a team that really works together. They've been working together for years, so we don't have to tell them what's what,” Okmanas said. “We plan to hire from outside as well, but that will take more time.”
Nexos.ai's platform is expected to launch by the end of March, but Okmanas said he is already working with a number of “beta customers and design partners.”