Memrise Co-founder Ed Cooke’s AI Tutor Startup Mindmax Raises $3.3M Pre-Seed
Mindmax secured $3.3M in pre-seed funding led by Concept Ventures to launch an AI tutor designed to combat 'cognitive surrender'.
AI edtech startup Mindmax has raised $3.3 million in a pre-seed round led by Concept Ventures, with participation from Redrice Ventures, Daybreak Ventures, and Lerer Hippeau. Angel investors include Maria Raga, former CEO of Depoplo, and Torsten Reil, co-founder of defense AI company Helsing.
Founded by Memrise co-founders Ed Cooke and Daniel Zohar, Mindmax offers an AI tutor for professional exam preparation and upskilling. The app is currently live globally on the App Store and Play Store. The company positions its product as a solution to 'cognitive surrender,' a term describing the tendency to rely too heavily on AI at the expense of active thinking.
Unlike one-way video lessons, Mindmax emphasizes real-time interaction, allowing users to interrupt, ask questions, or steer the lesson. The founders claim that combining Memrise's memory techniques with large language models improves information retention. The eight-person team is based in Paris, Latvia, London, and India. While the company asserts its interactive approach outperforms traditional teaching, it has not yet published error rates or independent validation results.