18-year-old founder raises $1.1M for Flocta

Berlin-based startup Flocta has secured $1.1 million in funding from Atlantic just two weeks after launching. The company is led by founder and CEO Maximilian Lippert Velarde, who turned 18 on the day the investment was announced.

Flocta is tackling a challenge that many businesses face as AI adoption grows: rising usage costs. The company has developed an all-in-one AI platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses that reduces large language model costs by 30 to 50 percent, depending on the workload.

“I started building when I was 13. Five years later, I’m building around a problem that will shape how widely AI gets used: cost efficiency”, says Maximilian, the goal is simple: “making the models you already use cheaper while maintaining the same quality.”

To achieve this, Flocta combines semantic caching, context compression and intelligent model routing. The platform automatically selects the most cost-efficient model for a specific task while keeping output quality at the required level. Flocta says customers can typically save around 35 percent while continuing to use their preferred AI tools.

The startup supports a wide range of AI models and can also work alongside existing enterprise AI setups. Rather than replacing established assistants, Flocta is designed to operate as a cost-efficiency layer underneath them.

Beyond cost savings, the company emphasizes data privacy. Flocta is built in Berlin, hosted in France and processes requests on EU infrastructure under GDPR. User data, files and conversations remain in the EU.

With fresh funding and an ambitious vision, Flocta is positioning itself as a European solution for businesses looking to scale AI adoption without seeing costs spiral out of control.

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