About ISTARI.AI

Curious:

We dare new things and venture beyond traditional paths.

For Everyone:

There is a place for everyone in our international team.

Scientific:

We bring cutting-edge research into everyday work.

Trusted:

Our brand stands for trust and reliability.

Our History

2018 - Born from science

As part of a joint research project between ZEW Mannheim and the University of Giessen, two young doctoral students, David and Jan, begin researching the fundamentals of "web-based innovation indicators". The basics are set out in this first paper and the world's first web-based innovation indicator is described in this paper.

2019 - The journey begins

Their scientific breakthroughs encouraged David and Jan to found ISTARI.AI in March 2019. Without any prior entrepreneurial knowledge or financial resources, but with a vision, they set off on their journey. In addition to their work as PhD students, they develop the webAI technology in their spare time.

2020 - Lockdown and startup

After a year of development, webAI is used for the first time in a paid project: ISTARI.AI analyzes all German company websites twice a week for the German Ministry of Economic Affairs to perform a real-time impact analysis during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Robert joins the team. At the end of the year, David and Jan complete their doctoral theses, find their first venture capital investors and become part of the Start-up Baden-Württemberg Pre-Seed Program for innovative start-ups.

2021 - All in ISTARI

ISTARI.AI moves into its first office in the MAFINEX Technology Center in Mannheim on January 1. David and Jan start working full-time for ISTARI and continue to develop webAI. Projects for international customers, especially from the scientific sector and regional business developers, are carried out with completed sub-components of webAI. ISTARI also becomes part of the PwC Scale Accelerator Program.

2022 - Growth and strong partners

Work on the webAI core technology is completed and the team grows. In order to finance the transition from a project business to a product business, ISTARI.AI welcomes 4U Ventures, Campus Founders and CK Holding to join as strong partners. ISTARI.AI also wins the top prize at the first Slush'd Germany.

2023 - From project to global product

ISTARI launches its first two products, webAI Lead and webAI Insights. In addition, we are now analyzing not only the German-speaking DACH region, but 20 million companies throughout Europe and North America. The team continues to grow and we are awarded the title of AI Champion of the State of Baden-Württemberg.

Meet the team

We are built on cutting-edge research and a highly skilled team. Founded in 2019 as a scientific spin-off, we specialize in AI-based analysis of company-related web data. We continue to stay closely connected to the scientific world and provide expert-level, science-based web analytics.