Interhuman AI, a startup based in Copenhagen, has raised €2 million in a pre-seed funding round to build the first social intelligence layer for AI systems. The investment was led by PSV Tech with participation from EIFO (Export and Investment Fund of Denmark), Antler, The Yope Foundation, and prominent angels from Ada Ventures.
Company Overview
Instead of guessing emotions like happy or sad, Interhuman’s system picks up and interprets observable behaviours such as hesitation, confusion, or engagement. By combining computer vision, audio analysis, and behavioural science, it translates human signals into cues that machines can understand in context. Their technology can read facial expressions, body language, and voice tone to figure out what a person is really feeling or trying to communicate.
Meet the Founder
Paula Petcu, co-founder and CEO of Interhuman AI, says, “AI can’t stay transactional if it’s going to matter in people’s lives. Our mission is to bring social intelligence into AI, so it can actually read the room and respond more like a human would. This round gives us the fuel to prove that.”
Petcu’s path to Interhuman runs through a decade in health tech and data science. A former CTO at Brain+, she was previously named one of Denmark’s Top 100 young talents. Originally from Romania, she moved to Denmark in 2009 to study computer science and has since been recognised among Europe’s leading women in tech leadership.
She explains, “I’m a technologist who fell in love with the human brain. When GPT was released, it was a moment of realisation of a new wave of technology impacting the world. And her motivation for this is continuing the work on how we can use technology to understand ourselves and each other better.”
Of the three founders at Interhuman AI, two are women. Petcu acknowledges the rarity of her role as a female technical CEO in AI.
“There haven’t been many role models to look to. What I’ve learned is you need to rely on your strengths, learn to say no to distractions, and build resilience like an athlete. We even used our own product for me to practice communicating boundaries more clearly,” says Petcu.
Future Plans
The funding will be used to build a platform and API that give access to Interhuman AI’s socially aware core models. It will also help grow the development team by hiring more AI engineers.
Alexander Viterbo‑Horten, Partner at PSV Tech, comments: “We’re only just beginning to see what happens when social intelligence is built into AI. This breakthrough has the potential to transform healthcare, education, and any sector where human‑AI interaction matters. Research already shows that automating behavioural coding with AI makes mental health diagnostics far more reliable, while avoiding the bias that comes with manual coding. Interhuman AI is leading this shift with rare technical depth, scientific rigour, and the ambition to unlock this frontier. Interhuman AI is exactly the kind of technological breakthrough Europe needs. It shows that European founders can lead in frontier AI, while staying true to the ethical and scientific standards that will define global trust in technology.”
