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Dicto AI

Business & Revenue Model
  • Target: Mid-to-large enterprises with revenues exceeding €50M.
  • Available Market: 72,000 companies in major European countries, with over 6,900 in Italy alone.
  • Involved Departments: Communication, Marketing, Brand, Legal, ESG, CEO.
  • Willingness to Pay: Validated by paid projects with high-standing clients (2 FTSE MIB companies, 1 CAC 40, 1 Confindustria trade organization).
  • Algorithmic Reputation: Treated as a critical asset with high disinformation risks.
  • The business model is structured across three levels:
    • One-shot Reputation Mapping Audit.
    • Annual SaaS Subscription with continuous monitoring, dashboards, alerts, and reporting.
    • Narrative Governance Advisory Services for corrective interventions.
  • Average Ticket Prices: One-shot Audit: €18k – €25k. Annual SaaS Subscription: €18k – €48k. Advisory Services: €20k – €30k.
  • Profitability: Target EBITDA Margin at full capacity of 53%.
  • Sales Channels: Direct sales via marketing automation for enterprise accounts; partnerships with communication agencies, strategic consulting firms, and system integrators.
  • Scalability: Transitioning from a platform-managed service to a multi-tenant cloud-native platform with expansion into France, Germany, and Spain.
Traction
  • Artificialis S.R.L. incorporated on January 28, 2025.
  • Registered as an Innovative Startup since February 25, 2025.
  • 2025 Revenue: €44,000 generated by the first product line AI Reputation Mapping.
  • First 4 Months of 2026: €73,000.
  • 2026 Target: €400,000 (approx. 9x run-rate vs. 2025).
  • Qualified Pipeline: Italian corporations with use cases in Brand Reputation, Executive Personal Reputation, Employer Branding, and Product Narrative.
  • Dicto AI Prototype: TRL 8.
  • Partnerships: La Gemma Ventures, OGR, AI4I (AI for Industry), ICT Innovation Hub, Le Village by Crédit Agricole.
  • Smart&Start Italy Program: Approved business plan of €498,000.
  • Completed Equity Round: €0.8M.
  • Q4 2026: Opening of a new €3M round.
Roadmap & Development Plan
  • 2026:
    • Release of Closed Beta SaaS with multi-tenant architecture (Aurora PG + PGVector, LLM integration via LiteLLM Proxy).
    • KPI Dashboards and DictoScore.
    • Integrated operational recommendations.
    • Development of vertical modules: Brand, Persona, Product, Employer Branding, Journey.
  • 2027:
    • Public Multi-tenant Beta release.
    • Security hardening and ISO 27001 certification prep.
    • PR and marketing launch campaign.
    • French, German, and Spanish localization with edge CDN.
    • Acquisition of first European clients.
  • 2028:
    • General Availability (GA) in the European market.
    • European Roadshow.
    • Commercial partnerships with agencies and system integrators in core markets.
    • Goal: Become the European standard for AI Narrative Governance.
Funding Need & Use of Funds
  • Fundraising Target: €3,000,000.
  • Complementarity: Round complements the already approved Smart&Start Italy program of approx. €500,000.
  • Use of Funds:
    • 30% IT: Frontend Developers, AI Specialists, Data Scientists, Behavioral Semiotician/Psychologist (24 months).
    • 40% International Sales & Marketing: Launch PR, events, expansion in FR/DE/ES.
    • 8% Cloud: Multi-tenant SaaS infrastructure and LLM integrations.
    • 2% Legal & Certifications: ISO 27001 and legal.
    • 20% Working Capital.
Legal Form
  • Società a Responsabilità Limitata (S.r.l.) – Innovative Startup.
Team & Cap Table
  • Federico Salomone (36.04%).
  • Mara Demichelis (36.04%).
  • Logos s.r.l. (8.01%).
  • La Gemma Venture (4.93%).
  • Others: Braida (4.56%), Burzio (2.96%), Giolitti (2.46%), Bartolomeo Salomone (2.46%), Riccio (1.23%), Cravario (0.82%), Giordana (0.49%).
Management Team
  • Federico Salomone – CEO & Co-Founder: Political Science degree, 20+ years as General Manager in international digital groups.
  • Paolo Scagliola – COO & Co-Founder: Journalist and digital entrepreneur at the intersection of media, narrative, and tech.
  • Luigi Bruno – CFO: Financial structure, management control, and investor relations.
  • Aaron Carlo Syed – CTO: Senior Software Architect, fractional CTO, expert in B2B2C cloud architectures.
  • Alberto Guffanti – Data Engineer: PhD in Physics, former Senior Data Engineer at Serenis Health.
  • Gregorio Caporale – AI Specialist: Tech integrator for platform AI modules.
Social/Environmental Impact
  • The Problem: Loss of information reliability as GenAI becomes the primary knowledge source. Hallucinations and algorithmic biases pollute public debate and erode trust in technology.
  • The Impact:
    • First European tool for fact-checking and certifying AI-generated narratives.
    • Enables organizations to proactively fight automated disinformation.
    • Alignment with the EU AI Act (transparency and accuracy obligations).
    • Compliance with Trustworthy AI frameworks and ESG “Governance” criteria.
Financial Structure
  • Equity: Approx. €800,000 (Founders + Private Investors/Business Angels).
  • Debt: None.
  • Grants: €500,000 – Smart&Start Italy Program (Approved).