What Velebit AI does

Velebit AI is a Zagreb, Croatia-based artificial intelligence services and product company that builds custom machine learning systems for enterprise clients, with a particular concentration in the e-commerce and online marketplace verticals. The company was founded around 2015 by Davor Aničić (CEO) and Mladen Fernežir (Lead Data Scientist) as one of the first teams in Croatia working with computer vision and custom ML, and it reports 11+ years of AI/ML development experience alongside 70+ custom solutions delivered. Its portfolio combines productized APIs — Color Detection API (22+ colors), Fabric Pattern Detection API (10 textile patterns), Visual Search, Chat To Search, Recommender Systems, Product Categorization, and Duplicate Detection — with professional services including custom AI development, AI consultancy, data and ML engineering, AI agent development, and team augmentation. The company also operates a consumer-facing sub-brand, Babbly, a camera-based language-learning mobile application.

The company's technical stack spans computer vision, natural language processing, recommendation engines, autonomous agents, predictive analytics, and anomaly detection, with NLP representing 61.1% of 2025 project usage and computer vision accounting for 16.7% of projects. Production deployments are large in absolute terms: 2025 metrics report 542 million model inferences, 200 million processed images, and 116 TB of image data across client environments. Velebit AI operates an API-first distribution model for off-the-shelf products through a self-serve dashboard with a free trial tier, while custom solutions are sold through direct, CEO-led enterprise engagement on Time & Materials contracts. Core integrations include Elasticsearch and Solr for vector similarity search, and the company offers both SaaS/cloud and on-premise deployment.

Velebit AI is privately held with no disclosed external funding and generates revenue from professional services, subscription/usage-based API products, and team augmentation. Named enterprise clients include Njuškalo (Croatia's largest classifieds platform), Photomath (now part of Google), Willhaben (Austria's largest free online marketplace with 10M+ items), Creative Fabrica, Selli AG, and Emil Frey, alongside mid-market and education-sector clients such as University of Rijeka and Jozef Stefan Institute. The company maintains compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and EU Standard Contractual Clauses, is an NVIDIA Inception member, sits on the CroAI (Croatian AI Association) board, and acts as an AI technology partner in EDIH Adria 2.0. The reported team size is 1–10 employees.

Name

Velebit AI

Legal name

Velebit Artificial Intelligence LLC

Website

https://velebit.ai

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Velebit AI is a Zagreb-based AI services and product company building custom machine learning systems and productized APIs (Color Detection, Fabric Pattern Detection, Visual Search) for e-commerce and online marketplace clients, monetizing through Time & Materials contracts, API subscriptions, and team augmentation.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Software Services for E-commerce

NAICS

Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/ML Engineering & Model Development Services (BPAEAHAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs) (HDAEANAJ), LLMOps & Generative AI Platforms (Prompt/Agent Orchestration, RAG) (HDAEANAD)

Keywords

• Computer vision APIs
• Natural language processing
• Machine learning services
• Visual search technology
• AI consultancy services

Headquarters

HQ city

Zagreb

HQ country

Croatia

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Custom AI Solutions: Time & Materials contract model for custom AI development projects. Pricing based on actual work completed with flexibility for evolving requirements. Involves AI consultancy, custom development, data & ML engineering, and AI agent development services.
2. API Products (SaaS): Off-the-shelf AI APIs including Color Detection and Fabric Pattern Detection available through the Velebit AI Dashboard. Customers can register and purchase API access with usage-based consumption.
3. Team Augmentation: Providing dedicated AI teams or senior engineers who join clients directly, extending capacity and expertise.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Velebit AI designs, builds, and deploys custom AI solutions and ready-to-use AI APIs primarily for e-commerce and online marketplaces. Their product portfolio includes automatic product tagging (Color Detection API, Fabric Pattern Detection API, Product Categorization), search and discovery (Visual Search, Chat To Search, Recommender Systems), and content moderation (Duplicate Detection). They complement these products with custom AI development, AI agent development, data and ML engineering, AI consultancy, and team augmentation services.

Product overview

Velebit AI offers a portfolio of AI products and services for e-commerce and online marketplaces. Their product lineup includes ready-to-use APIs: Color Detection API (detects 22+ colors), Fabric Pattern Detection API (identifies 10 textile patterns), Visual Search (image-based similarity search), Chat To Search (natural language product search), Recommender Systems, Product Categorization, and Duplicate Detection. They also offer Custom AI solutions, AI Agent Development Services, Data & ML Engineering, Consultancy, and Team Augmentation services. The AI products target e-commerce product discovery with automated tagging, search, and recommendation capabilities, while services provide full-cycle AI development from strategy to deployment.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Babbly: A mobile camera-based language learning application that allows users to learn new words in 10 different languages by identifying objects through the camera.

Products and services

• Color Detection API AI API that detects up to 22 colors plus a colorful/multicolor property in product images. Trained on human-labeled data to recognize colors as humans do, ignoring backgrounds and focusing on foreground objects.
• Fabric Pattern Detection API AI API that identifies and categorizes 10 textile patterns (floral, plaid, striped, geometric, animal print, camouflage, etc.) in product images for automated tagging and search filtering.
• Visual Search AI-powered image search technology that converts product images to vectors and returns visually similar items. Provides near real-time performance (~10ms lookup after 1-4 seconds upload-to-searchable) and supports tens of millions of items.
• Chat To Search Conversational AI search solution that understands user intent and natural language queries for e-commerce product discovery.
• Recommender Systems AI-based product recommendation engine using similarity-based algorithms to suggest related items based on images, text, or hybrid approaches.
• Product Categorization Automated product tagging and categorization using AI to classify items by attributes like color, pattern, and brand from images and text.
• Duplicate Detection AI solution for detecting and eliminating duplicate images from product catalogs to improve data quality.
• Babbly Mobile camera-based language learning application that identifies objects through the camera and provides translations in 10 languages.
• Custom AI Solutions Fully custom AI solutions built and deployed for specific business challenges across diverse domains, including model training, deployment, and ongoing maintenance, sold under Time & Materials contracts.
• AI Agent Development Services Development of production-ready AI agents connected to existing systems, data, and workflows using protocols like MCP (Model Context Protocol).
• Data & ML Engineering Data pipeline development, ML model training, infrastructure setup, and deployment services from data management to production-ready models.
• AI & ML Consultancy Strategic guidance and advisory services for AI and ML project implementation, including Discovery Sprints for scoping projects.
• Team Augmentation Dedicated AI teams or senior engineers who join client organizations to extend capacity and expertise.

Quantifiable outcome

• Color detection processes images in less than 50ms
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments9 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability10 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Best AdvisorycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 April 2023Partnership with Zagreb-based managerial consulting outlet focused on digital transformation consulting, strategic agility, and planning. Combined offering provides tailor-made solutions for companies starting the change process toward data-centric organizations, from education and support to AI implementation.
• EDIH Adria 2.0 (European Digital Innovation Hub)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerVelebit AI participates as an AI technology partner, providing expertise, infrastructure, and support for digital transformation initiatives across the Adriatic region.
• Croatian AI Association (CroAI)coreGTM or Marketing PartnerMember and active participant in Croatian AI Association. CEO Davor Aničić elected to CroAI Board for 2025. Supports AI ecosystem development and policy shaping in Croatia.
• TECH BarcelonaminorGTM or Marketing PartnerMember of TECH Barcelona ecosystem, supporting international connections and business development in the Barcelona tech scene.
• CISExminorGTM or Marketing PartnerMember of CISEx (Croatian Association for Business Software), supporting the Croatian IT business ecosystem.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Faculty AI: UK-based AI services and products firm with a similar hybrid model of custom AI consulting for enterprises and productized AI tools. Direct comparable in team size, geography, and service+product GTM motion.
• Dataiku: Paris-headquartered enterprise AI/ML platform with deep European roots, combining a platform product with professional services. Comparable in e-commerce and enterprise customer focus and EU base.
• Rasa: Berlin-based conversational AI platform serving enterprise customers with both open-source software and applied services, closely comparable to Velebit AI's blend of off-the-shelf AI products and custom delivery in Europe.
• ViSenze: Singapore-headquartered AI company specializing in visual search and product recommendation for e-commerce, directly overlapping with Velebit AI's Visual Search, Color Detection, and Recommender Systems APIs for online marketplaces.
• Mind Foundry: Oxford-based AI company combining ML platform products with bespoke AI engineering services for enterprise and government clients, closely mirroring Velebit AI's consulting-plus-productized-AI positioning.
• Syte: Israel-based visual AI platform for e-commerce offering visual search, automated tagging, and personalization APIs. Direct competitor in the same product categories (color/pattern detection, visual search, recommendations) targeting retailers and marketplaces.
• causaLens: London-based AI/decision-intelligence firm building custom AI solutions and a platform product for enterprise customers. Comparable hybrid services + IP approach targeting European enterprise.

Broad incumbents

• H2O.ai: Global AI/ML platform vendor offering AutoML, GenAI, and applied AI services. Comparable in serving enterprise customers with CV/NLP/ML solutions but at much greater scale and product breadth than Velebit AI.
• DataRobot: Established enterprise AI platform combining ML tooling with professional services. Overlaps with Velebit AI in delivering custom AI solutions and packaged AI products to enterprise customers across multiple verticals.
• Appen: Global provider of AI data services and platforms for training/evaluating ML models. Comparable business model mix of data-centric services and productized AI offerings for enterprise AI teams.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/velebitAI
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/velebitai

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Velebit AI