Helsinki-based startup Meeshkan writes software development tools to accelerate modern workflows. The startup has just raised €370k in pre-seed funding from several well-established angel investors, including Risto Siilasmaa and Kim Groop from First Fellow Partners, up-and-coming Finnish angel Ali Omar, futuristic.vc and Neil Murray’s The Nordic Web Ventures.
Meeshkan’s first product, a ChatOps bot already available on Slack, allows developers to rapidly stop, restart, fork, tweak, monitor, deploy and test machine learning models using existing collaborative workflows.
Founded in 2017, the startup will use the funding to work on its flagship machine learning product, and to build a new line of associated products for modern software development. Meeshkan is already working with clients in the US, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, and is currently hiring for several positions to support its growth ambitions.
Co-founder Mike Solomon said: “Ten years ago, people were still writing lots of bespoke algorithms, but we now live in the age of data-driven algorithms and third-party integrations. Our tools need to accommodate that workflow, but most do not. We made Meeshkan’s initial product as an internal solution for our own frustrations with Machine Learning, and we find along our journey that many other data scientists share this concern.”
Solomon added: “We want to become the trusted partner of developers around the world, irrespective of where or what they build. For us, roles are obsolete: there are very few people who only classify themselves as ‘data-scientists’ or ‘front-end developers’. Modern developers are curious, multi-faceted, resist labels and love experimenting, learning, and participating in communities. They also love to iterate over a pipeline that is always pushing to production. We want our brand and our offerings to be associated with that sense of freedom, ease of use, exploration and production-readiness.”
