French AI startup Mistral launches Le Chat mobile app for iPhone, Android — can it take enterprise eyes off DeepSeek? - Related to synthesis, inxy, off, iphone,, android

French AI startup Mistral launches Le Chat mobile app for iPhone, Android — can it take enterprise eyes off DeepSeek?

While the AI market has in recent days seemed to collapse around DeepSeek and OpenAI, there are of course many other teams of brilliant engineers fielding large language models (LLMs) that are worth a look as clients and enterprises seek to use the latest and greatest.

Take Mistral AI, the French startup that made headlines even before it launched with a record-setting seed funding round of $640 million, and which has quietly been training and releasing a mix of open-source and proprietary models for consumers and enterprises.

Even as the rise of new reasoning models and agents have dominated the AI landscape, Mistral is still positioning itself as a viable alternative to OpenAI’s signature chatbot ChatGPT and DeepSeek’s hit mobile app, especially for those concerned with data privacy and security.

Today, Mistral finally launched its own free, mobile version of its chatbot Le Chat for iOS and Android, as well as a new Enterprise tier for private infrastructure, and a Pro plan at $[website] per month. The move hints at that Mistral AI is making a concerted push to convince companies there are worthwhile alternatives to DeepSeek and OpenAI.

Mistral’s Le Chat offers business leaders an AI tool that integrates with enterprise environments, operates with high-speed performance and — importantly for some end-people — does not send user data to China, unlike DeepSeek.

Mistral targets both consumers and enterprises with savvy new releases.

Mistral AI’s latest rollout comes at a time when enterprises are increasingly evaluating AI partners based on data privacy, security and deployment flexibility.

The launch of Le Chat’s Enterprise tier, which allows businesses to deploy the assistant on private infrastructure, SaaS or virtual private cloud (VPC), points to that Mistral is targeting the same corporate clients who may have previously considered OpenAI’s GPT-4 or Anthropic’s Claude, but want more control over their data and models.

Mistral’s strategy mirrors a recent move by DeepSeek, the Chinese AI business that released DeepSeek-R1, a powerful reasoning model that offers capabilities and performance similar to OpenAI’s “o” series of models (o1, o1-mini and o3-mini out now, with o3 full soon to follow) but at a fraction of the lost (30 times less expensive for enterprise people than OpenAI o1).

However, DeepSeek’s expansion has been met in the West with privacy and security concerns related to China’s data retention and censorship laws. Some analysts have raised questions about whether AI models developed by Chinese firms could be subject to Beijing’s data access regulations, prompting enterprises to proceed cautiously when integrating such systems.

Mistral AI is betting that Le Chat’s performance advantages will also help it stand out.

The mobile app is powered by the firm’s latest low-latency AI models, which, Mistral says, enable “flash answers” — a feature that generates responses at speeds of up to 1,000 words per second.

Beyond speed, Le Chat differentiates itself by integrating real-time web search and sourcing from journalistic and social media platforms, allowing for fact-grounded responses rather than relying solely on pre-trained knowledge.

This makes Le Chat a potential alternative for businesses that require more up-to-date, evidence-based AI insights rather than static model training data.

Code interpreter : Allows in-place execution of scripts, scientific computations and data visualization.

: Allows in-place execution of scripts, scientific computations and data visualization. OCR and document processing : Industry-grade optical character recognition (OCR) for PDFs, spreadsheets and even complex or low-quality images.

: Industry-grade optical character recognition (OCR) for PDFs, spreadsheets and even complex or low-quality images. Image generation: Powered by Black Forest Labs’ Flux Ultra, enabling photorealistic content creation.

Undercutting OpenAI and Anthropic on price.

Mistral AI is also taking a different approach to pricing compared to competitors.

While OpenAI charges $20 per month for ChatGPT Plus and Anthropic’s Claude has varying pricing based on token limits, Le Chat’s Pro plan starts at $[website] per month.

Additionally, most attributes — including the latest models, document uploads and even image generation — are free, with limits only kicking in for power individuals.

For businesses looking at team-wide adoption, Le Chat Team provides priority support, unified billing and integration credits, while Enterprise deployments allow companies to use their own custom AI models tailored to their organization’s needs.

I downloaded and tested Mistral’s Le Chat iOS app on my iPhone briefly while writing and editing this piece, and compared some of my prompts to my default AI assistant, OpenAI’s ChatGPT powered by GPT-4o.

Le Chat was typically noticeably faster in its outputs than ChatGPT, but its Black Forest Labs Ultra model image generation capabilities were surprisingly not as adherent to my prompt as ChatGPT’s built-in connection to OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 image model, which is now 5 months old and hardly state-of-the-art anymore.

Also, OpenAI’s connectivity to web search provided richer diversity of findings than Le Chat, which defaulted to the AFP, a French yet English-language publishing news outlet and wire service that Mistral partnered with back in January 2025.

See some of my comparisons of Le Chat and ChatGPT below.

Le Chat’s launch underscores a broader industry shift: While OpenAI and Anthropic remain dominant players, enterprises are actively evaluating alternative AI providers that offer superior pricing, more flexible deployment options and clearer data privacy guarantees.

With DeepSeek facing scrutiny over its Chinese data links and OpenAI dealing with ongoing enterprise adoption challenges, Mistral AI’s European positioning, fast performance and competitive pricing could make it an increasingly attractive choice for businesses looking to integrate AI assistants into their workflows.

For companies weighing their AI options, the latest iteration of Le Chat is a signal that viable [website], non-Chinese AI alternatives are beginning to emerge — and it’s clear Mistral AI intends to be at the forefront of that shift.

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Modern Synthesis secures $5.5M for bio-based alternatives to animal and plastic-based textiles

Biomaterials firm Modern Synthesis today announces the successful close of a $[website] million funding round.

Founded by ex-Adidas designer Jen Keane and synthetic biologist Dr Ben Reeve, the corporation uses material science to transform nanocellulose — a natural byproduct of fermentation — into a new class of responsible textiles and coatings.

The corporation’s bio-based products not only displace animal leathers and plastic-based textiles, but also generate entirely new textile possibilities for designers.

Fashion faces financial risks as 35+ sustainability regulations loom.

Despite the demand from the industry, commercially available sustainable textiles represent less than 5 per cent of the $1 trillion global apparel textile market.

With more than 35 new sustainability-linked regulations slated to reshape the industry in the next few years, fashion and apparel brands that fail to adapt their material portfolios could face significant financial risks.

Further Industry research exhibits that fashion brands trying to comply with mounting decarbonisation and climate regulations will face a 133 million tonne shortfall of low-impact raw materials by 2030.

Modern Synthesis’ technology enables brands to reduce this shortfall by proactively adjusting their preferred raw materials mix whilst delivering new looks, feels, and material functions.

To make their biobased materials, Modern Synthesis transforms nanocellulose – a natural fermentation-derived fibre – into durable, high quality alternatives to animal leather, ‘vegan’ leather, and plastic-based coated textiles.

The enterprise’s scalable, proprietary process leverages advanced material science to build upon the innate strength and versatility of nanocellulose, a naturally derived polymer which is 8 times stronger than steel at a nanofibre level. The resulting materials are free from petrochemicals and toxic ingredients, and offer reduced environmental impact compared to incumbent textiles.

Extantia Capital led the round with participation from Artesian and Collaborative Fund. This investment will enable Modern Synthesis to expand production at its pilot facility and service more leading fashion brands on its growing waitlist.

CEO and co-founder of Modern Synthesis, Jen Keane, shared:

“Having demonstrated unprecedented material performance without plastic, we’re primed to offer the fashion market a material solution that can both captivate consumers and unlock a path to circularity. This investment gives us the capacity to work with more brands as we continue to uncover new use cases for the technology.”.

Yair Reem, Partner at Extantia Capital, comments:

“The first thing that struck us was how this material rivals traditional leathers in look and feel, but can also offer something entirely new that excites designers. Modern Synthesis represents the future of industry—delivering advanced, more cost-effective, and resilient materials that also happen to be green.”.

Alexandra Clunies-Ross, Partner at Artesian Investments, adds:

“Our investment decision was driven by the corporation's potential to revolutionise traditional manufacturing processes, and drive real impact at scale.”.

In September 2023, Modern Synthesis unveiled a prototype handbag in collaboration with Danish fashion brand GANNI; the companies are jointly working towards a commercial launch of GANNI’s Bou Bag in Modern Synthesis’ biomaterial.

Lead image: Modern Synthesis co-founders Ben Reeve and Jen Keane.

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INXY Payments raises $3M to ease crypto friction for businesses

Cyprus-based INXY Payments, an EU-authorized payment platform bridging together traditional finance and the crypto economy, has raised $3 million investment round led by Flashpoint VC with participation from angel investors.

INXY essentially acts as a payment gateway that facilitates the integration of crypto payments into traditional business operations while ensuring compliance with relevant regulations. It specializes in simplifying the process of accepting crypto for businesses by offering attributes like multi-currency processing, automated payouts, and crypto-to-fiat conversion.

With over $500M in annual transaction volume, INXY enables businesses to accept, send, and exchange digital assets.

It complies with EU regulations and advanced security measures, including KYB/KYC/KYT checks, to ensure safety.

“This investment validates our vision to make crypto payments accessible and compliant for businesses,” expressed Ruslan Zholik, CEO of INXY Payments. “We’re excited to expand our global presence and continue driving innovation in the crypto economy.”.

“We are thrilled to lead INXY’s investment round and support their mission to bridge traditional finance with the crypto economy. The crypto market is booming, with stablecoins surpassing $6 trillion in annual transactions and INXY is well-positioned to capitalize on this growth” mentioned Alexey Sidorov, Associate Partner at Flashpoint VC. “I’m particularly glad to support a Cyprus-based firm, reflecting Flashpoint’s commitment to backing globally oriented entrepreneurs from Europe and Israel.”.

Flashpoint is headquartered in London and has offices in New York, Europe (including Limassol), and Tel Aviv.

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