Munich Startup: What does your startup, Pruna AI, do? What problem do you solve?
Bertrand Charpentier, Pruna AI: AI requires enormous computing resources. An example: If everyone in Germany generated five pages of ChatGPT every day, we would need two nuclear power plants running all the time to generate enough energy. To solve this problem, Pruna AI is the go-to resource for ML teams looking to simplify scalable inference. We use advanced (combination) compression methods to automatically make any model faster, smaller, cheaper and greener – on any hardware and for any application.
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Bertrand Charpentier: AI and deep learning in particular are constantly evolving fields where new data, models and hardware are pushing the boundaries of what is possible. At Pruna AI, we automatically adapt to each scenario, without difficulty, by combining the best compression methods based on the user’s goals and constraints. This ensures that our solution is always up-to-date, optimized and best suited for the task at hand, which sets us apart from existing approaches.
Pruna AI wants to make AI accessible to everyone
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Bertrand Charpentier: During my PhD, I realized that regardless of the company or lab, people were constantly struggling to get enough computing power for their models. I quickly understood that it is not possible to run SOTA models (editor’s note: SOTA = State of the Art) on local computers without consuming enormous resources. This motivated me to work intensively on efficient AI methods. I then built a team of co-founders – Stephan Günnemann, John Rachwan and Rayan Nait Mazi – who all bring deep expertise in AI and entrepreneurship to found Pruna AI and make AI sustainable for the planet and accessible for all.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Bertrand Charpentier: One of our biggest challenges was the widespread lack of understanding of how AI works and the real technical challenges involved. Communicating to people what critical problems are driving the cost of AI and what solutions exist for this is crucial. Our team has focused on raising awareness of these challenges while demonstrating the importance of efficient and sustainable AI development.
Leading company in terms of model downloads
Munich Startup: How is business going?
Bertrand Charpentier: We have already made a significant impact by putting our models into production for hundreds of thousands of hours, saving our customers millions of computing hours and costs. We have also publicly shared more than 7,000 compressed models that have been downloaded over 1.3 million times on Hugging Face, making us the leading company in terms of model downloads. These milestones demonstrate the growing demand for our technology and the value we bring to the AI community.
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Bertrand Charpentier: Munich is a fantastic location for building Pruna AI. With its leading universities, vibrant startup ecosystem and strong focus on technology and innovation, Munich offers numerous opportunities to develop both our team and our business. The proximity to top research institutions has also been a great advantage in driving our technology and mission forward.
Munich Startup: Risk or security?
Bertrand Charpentier: There are two types of risks: those that you can control and reduce through testing and experimentation, and those that you cannot control because they depend on external factors. The key is to position yourself to explore opportunities while minimizing the risk of factors you can’t control. That way, you can continue to grow and thrive, even under uncertain conditions.
