Our AI thesis focuses on how intelligent systems carve through the mundane obstacles of everyday existence - a quiet revolution making difficult things simpler, faster, and better. At Cherry, we don’t just put our theses on the shelf, we put them to work.

This vision comes to life in our latest investment: Cortea.

While regulatory compliance rarely makes headlines, it's an essential function desperately awaiting intelligent automation - the perfect canvas for AI's transformative potential.

Pre-seed investments allow us to back teams who understand specific markets with exceptional clarity. In Cortea's founders, we found that elusive combination of deep domain expertise, technological vision, and the ambition to tackle a challenge others might overlook.

Alongside a remarkable set of co-investors from BCG, Google DeepMind, and leading financial institutions, we're leading the €3.1M round to support this mission.

Not because regulatory compliance is suddenly fashionable, but because making essential work more intelligent creates ripple effects across entire industries.Here’s how Cortea is executing against each pillar of our AI thesis… and why that matters for the future of regulatory compliance.

Evolution: Augmenting the Modern Workforce

One of the core elements of our AI thesis is what we call "Workflow Co-Pilots" — AI tools that augment human capabilities by automating repetitive tasks and delivering relevant information at the right moment.

"In fields like accounting, insurance claims, or healthcare, AI can anticipate next steps, which previously required time-consuming work and learned intuition. This automation not only saves time but also reduces error rates, allowing employees to focus on more complex and value-added tasks."

Cortea’s AI-powered platform automates the tedious aspects of regulatory audits - requesting data, analysing documents, and generating documentation - freeing auditors to focus on high-value work that requires human judgment.

During our discussions with Cortea's founders, Valentin Neumann and Philipp Hövelmann, we were struck by their contagious enthusiasm for what many would consider a boring space. They passionately articulated how AI could solve a pressing problem in the DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) regulatory space, where companies urgently need solutions but are currently limited to manual approaches. The timing was perfect - and we could hear the market urgency directly from potential customers.

Information Retrieval: Making Everyone Smarter

“AI's ability to find, process, and deliver relevant information efficiently. We believe the true value lies not just in retrieving data, but in finding the most relevant and valuable information when it's needed.”

Cortea's AI has been optimised to understand specific regulatory frameworks and auditor terminology, acting as "Google Translate for regulation" - making complex compliance requirements accessible without specialised expertise.

This bridges the growing gap between modern software development and regulatory requirements. While the market is flooded with RAG solutions, the real game-changer is the quality of information retrieval. By focusing on the smartness of information retrieval in a specialised domain, Cortea delivers the value we highlighted in our investment framework.

The New Tooling Wave: Taming AI for Specialised Use Cases

Our thesis predicted that 2024 would mark the beginning of a…

"New tooling wave" - tools to maintain, manage, and deploy AI systems effectively. AI applications would be carefully "productised" to solve specific, high-value problems.”

Raw AI capability is like a Formula 1 car - you would never drive it to work every day. Cortea’s specificity adapts these powerful capabilities into practical tools that solve real-world problems.

Their system clearly flags areas requiring human judgment while automating everything else, with traceability built in at every step.

While Cortea primarily represents the evolutionary aspects of our AI thesis, it also touches on revolutionary elements.

Our thesis discussed the "interface leap" that AI enables - transforming how we access and interact with information - and the "age of supercreation" where AI enhances human creativity without replacing it.

Cortea bridges regulatory requirements and human judgment, and by automating document analysis and information retrieval, they free auditors to apply their expertise more strategically.

Why This Matters: AI Enabling Safe Innovation

The European startup ecosystem often bemoans regulation as innovation's nemesis. We hear it constantly: European startups are strangled by red tape while competitors elsewhere race ahead unencumbered.

​​But regulation alone does not stop innovation. We can have safe innovation, and Cortea enables it.

This represents a profound win-win: companies meet their regulatory obligations with less friction, regulators achieve their guardrails, and auditors can focus on meaningful work rather than document processing.

Even more remarkably, the technologies regulators seek to govern are becoming the solution to regulation itself. This is our Workflow Co-Pilots thesis in action.

While European founders are uniquely positioned to lead this transformation - because they understand the regulatory landscape intimately - the need for intelligent compliance solutions extends far beyond our borders.

This is why we're excited about Cortea's global potential. The world needs solutions that make compliance efficient without stifling innovation.