Langdock raises $3M with Common Catalyst to assist corporations keep away from vendor lock-in with LLMs

Loads of giant firms wish to be part of the AI revolution, however many really feel it’s too early to be locked into one foundational mannequin. Which means there’s a marketplace for a layer between corporations and Giant Language Fashions (LLMs) — one thing corporations can use to select LLMs simply with no need to commit forever to at least one platform.

That’s the market Langdock is concentrating on with its chat interface that sits between LLMs and an organization. Based mostly out of Germany, the startup has not too long ago raised a $3 million seed spherical led by Common Catalyst, and its European seed-stage companion, La Famiglia.

“Companies don’t want to have a vendor lock-in on just one of those LLM providers,” Lennard Schmidt, co-founder and CEO of Langdock, informed TechCrunch. “So we’ve kind of abstracted that away in an interface that allows a company to choose which of the underlying models from different vendors can be used by employees.”

Langdock’s chat interface lets corporations faucet foundational fashions, open supply fashions, or host their very own fashions and make that accessible, Schmidt mentioned.

The funding spherical additionally noticed participation from Y Combinator and a few famous German founders, together with Rolf Schrömgens (Trivago), Hanno Renner (Personio), Johannes Reck (GetYourGuide), and Erik Muttersbach (Forto), together with round 25 different angel buyers.

Particularly, there’s a European play right here: Langdock is “going heavy” into the concept corporations within the EU will wish to safely and securely combine LLMs in a way that’s compliant with regulation.

Which means staff can function in a barely extra closed setting, enabling them to create, as an example, immediate libraries, use multiple LLM, and add delicate paperwork.

Along with the chat interface, the corporate additionally presents safety, cloud and on-premises options.

Langdock claims to have a lot of clients together with Merck, GetYourGuide, HeyJobs, and Forto. Merck has rolled out the startup’s interface to its 63,000 staff. Walid Mehanna, chief knowledge and AI officer at Merck, mentioned in a press release: “We are early adopters of GenAI and see a paradigm shift in how technology can enable our employees to become more effective and efficient in their daily work life.”

Langdock isn’t the one firm to deal with this area.

Dust, based mostly out of Paris, has raised €5 million thus far and is backed by Sequoia. The corporate is constructing an interface that corporations can use to leverage LLMs for varied use instances like customer support, inside studies, analysis, and extra. In distinction, Langdock’s chat interface works for a broader vary of use instances and can be utilized by any form of workers.