# BottleCap AI

> BottleCap AI is a Prague-based lab building efficiency-first LLMs, founded by word2vec creator Tomas Mikolov and backed by a $7.5m seed led by 20VC.

BottleCap AI | Prague's Efficiency-First LLM Lab

BottleCap AI is a Prague-based artificial-intelligence lab founded in 2023 that builds "efficiency-first" large language models — an architecture-led approach designed to reason more per unit of compute, rather than simply scaling up size and cost.

Its founding team is unusually heavyweight for a seed-stage startup: Tomáš Mikolov, the researcher behind word2vec, ex-Beat Saber executive Jaroslav Beck, and David Herel. In 2025 it raised a $7.5 million seed round led by 20VC, with angels including Canva’s Cliff Obrecht, Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen and Xavier Niel. Its first product, Pulse, runs on CAP1, the company’s own foundation model.

https://www.bottlecapai.com/