HOLLYWOOD ICON, SYLVESTOR STALLONE, JOINS AS STRATEGIC PARTNER & INVESTOR
FEBRUARY 3rd 2025: Leading global provider of advanced AI-driven solutions for the film, TV and advertising industries, Largo.ai, has successfully closed its Series A financing round, securing a USD$7.5 million investment. Co-led by Los-Angeles based, TI Capital and Switzerland and Los-Angeles based, QBIT Capital, participation in the funding round includes Atreides Management from Boston, Sylvester Stallone, who is backing the venture as a strategic partner, Thomas Tippl, former COO of Activision Blizzard acquired by Microsoft Gaming – with further investment from DAA Capital.
The $7.5 million investment will enable Largo.ai to drive its ambitious growth plans and enrich its core business areas. Having established widespread adoption within the film and TV sectors, working with over 600 companies including several Hollywood studios and large agencies, Largo-ai will expand its core offering with the launch of its Version 3 into the market. The new version will provide actionable recommendations together with its existing tools and generate early creative concepts that mimic how the content will look in the final production stages.
Following the successful introduction of its Brands Suite, designed to empower brands and advertising agencies to test campaigns, ideas and products and expedite the creative process, Largo.ai is also focussed on expanding its foothold within the vertical. Its Simulated Focus Group tool is central to this, enabling users to discover the impact of their ideas, from predicated emotional responses to likeability and buying interest, with digital twins of real people. Compared with traditional focus group and market research tests, which are expensive, labour intensive and time consuming, Simulated Focus Group provides a similar level of insight and accuracy at a more cost and time-effective rate. Largo.ai views the Brands Suite as a significant extension of its core business model. There are also plans afoot for an acquisition in the field, with advanced discussions underway – soon to be announced.
Sami Arpa, CEO and Co-founder, Largo.ai, said: “When we set out on this journey in 2020 for Largo.ai, the role of AI in filmmaking was confined to the streaming giants. Our mission was to level the playing field for the rest of industry, which has stayed more traditional to-date. Over the last two years, as technologies like ChatGPT have become embedded in our everyday lives, the fear of AI has diminished, and its adoption curve is dramatically changing. People have woken up to the limitless potential of using AI as an assistance tool. It’s about creating better content in a faster, easier and less risky way.
We are proud to have been at the forefront of this movement and, with the support from our investors and strategic partners who share our vision, we can now truly push the boundaries of AI integration for the movie and advertising industries. Working with our growing community of filmmakers, brands and agencies, we are committed to continuing to innovate together.”
Launched in 2020 in collaboration with the prestigious Swiss university, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Largo.ai is headquartered at the EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne, an ecosystem for world-class start-ups and companies. Largo.ai also has presence in Los Angeles, London, and Istanbul. Largo.ai has analysed over 400,000+ films and TV series, 950,000 talents, 59,000 scripts and 200,000+ ads to train cutting-edge AI programmes. The award-winning venture scooped ‘Best new start-up’ at the San Sebastian Film Festival and was selected as one of the Horizon 2020 Top Start-ups for Berlinale 2020 in addition to the Top 100 Swiss Start-Up Awards.
Largo.ai’s patented core technologies employ a unique approach to understanding content by analysing cinematographic patterns and simulating real human behaviour. These two foundational methods serve as the basis for advanced AI models that assess a project’s structural patterns, strengths and weaknesses, anticipated audience emotions, demographic reach, and expected audience size. Additionally, they provide both qualitative and quantitative insights into audience preferences—highlighting what they are likely to enjoy or reject. Delivered within minutes, these insights offer a significant advantage in cost, time, and accuracy compared to traditional methods.
Largo.ai will be hosting “Pitch Perfect: Producers Showcase Projects Analysed By AI” at this year’s Berlinale, EFM 2025. The event will take place on Saturday 15th February from 4.30 – 6pm CET at the Documentation Centre in Berlin. The showcase will see 20 globally recognised producers run their projects in development through Largo-ai’s intelligence platform to reveal forecasts, assess audience and the story’s strong and weak points. For a full list of producers participating and to confirm your attendance please visit this link.
