Galtea, a spin-off from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, was founded a year and a half ago and employs AI to create test scenarios revealing failures, hallucinations, biases, and security risks before enterprise AI agents launch. The funding round was led by 42CAP, with participation from Mozilla Ventures.
As AI agents transition from demo to production, testing has become a major challenge. Creating a generative AI product is now feasible, with models, APIs, and developer tools readily available.
However, infrastructure to ensure products function reliably at scale with real users is lacking.
Galtea aims to fill this gap. Originating from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center in October 2024, the startup has secured $3.2 million in seed funding for development.
42CAP, an early-stage fund from Munich, led the funding round, joined by Mozilla Ventures, JME Ventures, Masia, and ABAC Nest Ventures. This increases total funding to $4.1 million. The funds will enhance Galtea’s engineering and commercial teams and advance platform development.
Galtea’s main product automatically generates test cases and user simulations from AI agent behavior descriptions, eliminating the need for manual input from engineering teams.
The platform assesses models for hallucination, bias, security weaknesses, and toxicity, providing metrics for developers and compliance teams to guide deployment decisions. Additionally, the company introduced a self-service tier with a free trial to expand access beyond enterprise customers.
Galtea’s founders, Jorge Palomar and Baybars Külebi, bring unique expertise. Palomar, CEO, previously worked at Amazon and in BSC’s Language Technologies group, while CTO Külebi holds a PhD in Astrophysics and has a background in language and audio technology, along with machine learning expertise at BSC.
The technology was initially developed at BSC for internal evaluation of large language models, utilizing MareNostrum 5, Europe’s powerful supercomputer. This gives Galtea scientific depth unusual for a company only eighteen months old.
Galtea’s market entry coincides with regulatory changes. The EU AI Act mandates documentation and validation of AI models’ safety and compliance in high-risk applications, with fines up to €35 million for breaches.
This regulation has made testing infrastructure crucial for European companies building AI products. Galtea’s platform addresses this need, assisting with compliance evidence without requiring major workflow changes.
Mozilla Ventures’ investment highlights a focus on trustworthy AI, aligning with the fund’s strategic emphasis since 2022.