Mindmax raises $3.3m with US backing for AI tutor rollout

London-based Mindmax has raised £2.5 million ($3.3 million) in pre-seed funding to develop an AI tutor for professional exams and workplace skills, bringing US investor Lerer Hippeau into its investor group as it pursues a US-first rollout.

Concept Ventures led the round, joined by Redrice Ventures, Daybreak Ventures and Lerer Hippeau. Angel investors included former Depop chief executive Maria Raga and Helsing co-founder Torsten Reil. Founded by Ed Cooke and Daniel Zohar, Mindmax is positioning its technology as a way to strengthen users’ learning rather than take over their thinking.

Cooke told Tech Funding News that the app was live globally on Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store, describing the US as coming first in the launch sequence. That gives the funding a transatlantic dimension beyond the participation of an American investor, although the reports do not detail a US office, local hiring programme or country-specific customer figures.

Conversation rather than answer delivery

Mindmax’s first product focuses on professional exam preparation and upskilling. Users talk to an AI tutor in real time, interrupt explanations, ask follow-up questions and steer lessons towards material they find difficult. The app also provides visual explanations and illustrations.

According to the company, lessons adapt to a learner’s existing knowledge, goals and preferred approach. The intended distinction from passive study materials is participation: users should work through a subject in conversation rather than simply watch a video, read notes or receive a finished answer.

“Curiosity has always been the greatest fuel for learning. Which means you need to be able to ask questions,” Zohar said, according to Tech.eu. “When you’re in a one-to-one conversation with an expert, you’ll ask 20-30 questions per hour. You can’t do that in a classroom.”

The company says that approach is designed to improve learning and information retention. The supplied reports do not include independent evidence of better exam performance or retention, so those remain product ambitions rather than demonstrated outcomes. Mindmax plans to continue developing its AI models to support more personalised learning.

Memrise experience, not inherited traction

The founders bring experience from Memrise, the language-learning platform that says it has reached more than 80 million users worldwide. Cooke co-founded Memrise, while Zohar worked with him for more than a decade as its chief technology officer, according to Tech Funding News.

Cooke became a Grand Master of Memory at 23 and coached writer Joshua Foer, who won the 2006 US Memory Championship. That background helps explain Mindmax’s emphasis on how people acquire and retain knowledge. Memrise’s audience, however, is a track record for the founders—not a measure of demand for their new company.

An early US commercial test

Mindmax remains a small operation. Tech Funding News reported an eight-person team, including six full-time members, with staff based in Paris, Latvia, London and India. The reported American move is therefore a product rollout backed by US capital, rather than an announced expansion of its physical footprint.

The strategic test is whether conversational tutoring can offer learners enough value beyond access to AI-generated answers. Professional qualifications give Mindmax a defined starting point, while the US-first approach puts that proposition before American users early. The funding supports further development; evidence of adoption and learning outcomes will be needed to establish whether the founders can turn their previous experience into a new education business.