INSAIT - Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology

What INSAIT - Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology does

INSAIT (Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology) is a privately structured research institute headquartered at Sofia Tech Park in Sofia, Bulgaria, operating as a special unit of Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" under a 10-year strategic partnership with the Bulgarian government, ETH Zurich, and EPFL. Founded in April 2022, INSAIT conducts frontier AI and computer science research across machine learning, computer vision, robotics, NLP, algorithms, cryptography, quantum computing, and formal methods, and has rapidly become the highest-ranked AI research institution in Eastern Europe (#13 in Europe per CSRankings 2025; #1 Eastern Europe at ICLR and CVPR 2026). Its core products are open-source AI models and datasets — notably BgGPT (a 7B-parameter Bulgarian LLM trained on 3B+ Bulgarian sentences under Apache 2.0), MamayLM (a Ukrainian LLM powering Mamay AI Chat for 40M+ users), SPEAR-1 (Europe's first open robotic foundation model, matching Physical Intelligence's Pi-0.5 with 20x less training data), StateSpaceDiffuser (a NeurIPS 2025-accepted world model), SceneSplat-49k (world's largest open-source 3D scene dataset), and FireScope AI (first public wildfire risk map for Europe).

The institute operates a non-commercial revenue model funded by philanthropic and government grants, with cumulative corporate support from Google (~USD 6.5M+), AWS (~USD 4.75M), VMware (USD 1.5M), DeepMind (USD 285K) and SiteGround (USD 6.5M), a 2.5M EUR ERC grant (Bulgaria's first in Engineering and Natural Sciences), and a 170M BGN (~USD 90M) ten-year Bulgarian government commitment. INSAIT recruits a global pipeline of researchers — drawing 700 PhD applicants from 47 countries to fill 8 spots in its first cohort, and 2,800+ summer applicants for 15 SURF slots in 2026 — mentored by a faculty that includes Prof. Martin Vechev (Founder/Scientific Director, ETH Zurich), Prof. Luc Van Gool, and Dr. Slav Petrov (ex-Google). Beyond research, INSAIT has a growing applied footprint: AI adoption by the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency and National Audit Office, research collaborations with Toyota (humanoid robotics) and Netflix (video object-removal model), and strategic alignment with MIT CSAIL through a 2025 joint research program that funnels INSAIT staff into MIT for one-year residencies.

Name

INSAIT - Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology

Legal name

INSAIT - Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology

Website

https://insait.ai

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

INSAIT is a Sofia-based AI and computer science research institute (founded 2022 as a special unit of Sofia University with ETH Zurich/EPFL) that produces frontier open-source AI models, datasets, and doctoral training while supplying sovereign LLMs for Bulgarian and Ukrainian language users.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Research and Foundation Models

NAICS

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (61131), Educational Support Services (611710), Computer Training (61142)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

AI Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Platforms (HDAAAMAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Model Transparency, Explainability & Interpretability (XAI) (HDAAAMAB), AI Observability, Monitoring & Evaluation Platforms (Drift, Quality, Safety) (HDAEANAF)

Keywords

• AI research institute
• Foundation models
• Computer science research
• Open-source AI
• Doctoral education

Headquarters

HQ city

Sofia

HQ country

Bulgaria

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Government Funding: Bulgarian government provides strategic support and core funding as part of 10-year plan with ETH Zurich, EPFL, and government partnership.
2. Corporate Donations and Grants: Major tech companies including Google, Amazon Web Services, VMware, DeepMind, SiteGround, and others provide financial support, cloud credits, and research funding.
3. ERC Grants: European Research Council grants providing frontier research funding. Dr. Bernhard Haeupler won Bulgaria's first ERC grant in Engineering and Natural Sciences (2.5M EUR). Prof. Martin Vechev won both ERC Starting and Consolidator grants.
4. Foundation Support: Support from foundations including 'Lead by Example' (SiteGround), America for Bulgaria, Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation, and venture capital funds PostScriptum and LAUNCHub Ventures.
5. Educational Programs: Revenue from educational programs including EXPLORER bachelor program (funded by donations exceeding 1,000,000 BGN) and student scholarships.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

INSAIT is a non-profit research institute that conducts frontier AI and computer science research, develops and open-source releases of foundation models (BgGPT for Bulgarian, MamayLM for Ukrainian, SPEAR-1 for robotics, SceneSplat-49k for 3D scenes), and operates graduate-level educational programs including PhD scholarships, SURF summer fellowships, and the EXPLORER bachelor program.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• BgGPT: First open large language model for Bulgarian language and chat interface, released by INSAIT for Bulgarian citizens, institutions, and businesses.
• SPEAR-1
• MamayLM
• SURF
• EXPLORER
• FireScope AI
• SceneSplat-49k
• StateSpaceDiffuser

Products and services

• BgGPT First open large language model for Bulgarian language with 7 billion parameters, trained on over 3 billion Bulgarian sentences; available free to Bulgarian state, users, public and private organizations under Apache 2.0 license.
• BgGPT 3.0 Next-generation Bulgarian language AI chat with precision models for business applications and upgraded chat for citizens, supporting text, images, audio, web search, reasoning, and long document processing.
• MamayLM / Mamay AI Chat First large language model and AI chat service for Ukrainian, serving more than 40 million users with text, images, audio, web search, reasoning, and long document processing capabilities.
• SPEAR-1 Europe's first open robotic foundation model trained on 3D data, enabling robots to navigate and manipulate objects with greater precision than traditional 2D-based models; open-source robot brain for industrial robotics.
• FireScope AI First AI system in the world for high-resolution wildfire risk prediction with human-explainable explanations, including an interactive wildfire risk map for Europe.
• PhD Program Full doctoral scholarship program offering 39,684 EUR gross annual stipend for up to 5 years, with mentorship from world-class researchers including ETH Zurich, CMU, EPFL, MIT, and Yale faculty; degrees issued through Sofia University.
• SURF - Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship offering 8-10 week research programs with 1,500 EUR monthly stipend, accommodation, and travel support; modeled after MIT, Caltech, and ETH Zurich programs.
• EXPLORER Bachelor Program Bachelor program combining FMI Sofia University education with INSAIT research projects and paid summer engineering internships at leading tech companies; 36,000 EUR scholarship over program duration.

Quantifiable outcome

• Ranked #13 in Europe (CSRankings), #1 in Eastern Europe at ICLR 2026
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability12 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• Bulgarian GovernmentflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2026Government discussing strategic partnership in AI and innovation. Deputy Prime Minister Pulev and Minister Vassilev visited INSAIT calling it a strategic project for Bulgaria. 170M BGN 10-year commitment.
• NetflixcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 April 2026INSAIT and Netflix developed AI model that realistically removes objects from video.
• MIT CSAILflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2025Joint research program allowing INSAIT researchers to spend one year at MIT CSAIL. INSAIT remains employer. Supported by 'America for Bulgaria' Foundation and 'Led by Example' Foundation. Initial cycle of up to 6 participants per year.
• ToyotacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 April 2024Research collaboration on AI and robotics. Prof. Luc Van Gool leads INSAIT side. Focus on humanoid support robots and AI for autonomous living. Includes funding for doctoral scholarships.
• ToyotacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2024Collaboration on AI and robotics including humanoid support robots for autonomous living. Prof. Luc Van Gool leads research. Includes doctoral scholarship funding.
• AI Alliance (IBM and Meta)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 December 2023Member of international community of leading tech developers, researchers, and users collaborating on open, safe, and responsible AI development.
• RIKEN (Japan)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 November 2023MoU for AI research cooperation with Japan's largest research institution. First AI agreement between Bulgaria and Japan. Covers robotics, machine learning, computer vision. Includes joint seminars and researcher exchanges.
• ELLISflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 4 September 2023Bulgaria first Eastern European country to join ELLIS strategic European AI network. INSAIT and Sofia University members of this elite network for AI development.
• ETH ZurichflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 April 2022Founding partner in 10-year plan for INSAIT. Key strategic advisor and model for institute structure. Faculty members including Prof. Martin Vechev, Prof. Andreas Krause, Prof. Srdjan Capkun provide ongoing mentorship and research collaboration.
• EPFL LausanneflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 April 2022Founding partner in 10-year plan for INSAIT. Contributing to institute development and research direction.
• Sofia University St. Kliment OhridskiflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 April 2022INSAIT is structured as a special unit of Sofia University, providing academic credentials and institutional framework. PhD degrees are issued through the university.

Scale indicators23 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• MILA (Quebec AI Institute): MILA is a world-class AI research institute in Montreal founded by Yoshua Bengio; structurally the closest analogue to INSAIT — a non-profit research hub that combines frontier fundamental research, large-scale open-source model releases, industrial partnerships, and government support, and that similarly acts as a regional anchor for AI talent.
• ETH AI Center: The ETH AI Center is INSAIT's founding-partner counterpart at ETH Zurich; both centers focus on fundamental and applied AI across vision, NLP, robotics, and ML, share faculty (Prof. Andreas Krause directs ETH AI Center and serves on INSAIT's board), and operate with similar faculty/student/stipend models.
• Allen Institute for AI (AI2): AI2 is a US-based non-profit AI research institute producing open-source models (OLMo, Molmo, Tulu) and benchmarks at frontier quality — directly comparable to INSAIT on the open-model release strategy, research output emphasis, and PhD-style research environment without a traditional undergraduate teaching load.
• IST Austria (Institute of Science and Technology Austria): IST Austria is the structural template for INSAIT — a small-country elite research institute (Austria) offering world-class PhD programs and faculty positions with English-language operations; Prof. Tom Henzinger (IST Austria President) sits on INSAIT's supervisory board, underscoring the explicit model relationship.
• EPFL AI Center: EPFL AI Center is INSAIT's second founding partner and a comparable academic AI hub; both centers operate in the European research ecosystem with ELLIS membership, shared faculty engagement, and overlapping research themes in ML, computer vision, and trustworthy AI.
• RIKEN AIP (Japan): RIKEN AIP is Japan's flagship national AI research institute; INSAIT signed an MoU with RIKEN in 2023 covering robotics, ML, and computer vision with joint seminars and researcher exchanges — both institutions are government-backed national AI centers in non-traditional tech hubs.

Others

• ELLIS (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems): ELLIS is the pan-European AI research network of which INSAIT is Bulgaria's first member unit; comparable as a coordinating body that connects national AI research excellence across Europe and that INSAIT helps anchor for Eastern Europe.

Regional players

• Czech Technical University CIIRC: CIIRC is the Czech Technical University's AI and industrial robotics research institute — a regional Central European peer pursuing similar industry-aligned AI and robotics research, comparable in mission and in operating from a non-Western-European tech capital.

Emerging players

• ELLIS PhD Program: The ELLIS PhD Program is a pan-European doctoral network that competes with INSAIT for top European AI PhD candidates; comparable on training mission, mentor model, and stipend structure, though distributed across multiple host institutions.
• LatticeFlow AI: LatticeFlow AI is a Bulgarian-founded AI company recognized among the world's top 100 AI companies and an INSAIT EXPLORER donor; comparable as a Bulgarian-origin AI venture that emerged from a similar ecosystem and now partners with INSAIT on regional AI talent development.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/INSAITinstitute
• Facebookfacebook.com/INSAIT.institute
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/insaitinstitute

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about INSAIT - Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology