Flagship Pioneering, the Cambridge-based venture firm behind Moderna, has launched a new startup called Extuitive, marking its first major move into artificial intelligence beyond life sciences. Backed by $20 million in seed funding, Extuitive aims to transform how small businesses develop consumer products and run creative marketing campaigns by harnessing advanced AI once reserved for global corporations.
The platform combines generative AI with evolutionary algorithms to simulate consumer behaviour using purchasing data from 100,000 real shoppers. This creates virtual AI consumers capable of testing thousands of product concepts and marketing campaigns within minutes. “Our platform can simulate human preferences with precision, enabling entrepreneurs to generate, refine, compare and validate products and creative content at unprecedented speed,” said Armen Mkrtchyan, co-founder and chief executive of Extuitive.
The launch comes as biotech venture funding slows, with investors shifting towards emerging sectors. Flagship, which manages $14 billion in assets, has so far built more than 100 ventures in healthcare and agriculture. Its move into consumer technology with Extuitive broadens its innovation portfolio and reflects growing interest in AI-driven company creation.
Extuitive targets a critical gap in the market: small businesses, which account for about 40 per cent of US GDP but often lack access to enterprise-grade research tools. Mkrtchyan, an MIT graduate who previously developed drone systems for farming, said the platform could allow solo entrepreneurs to build billion-dollar firms by democratising access to advanced innovation capabilities.
Noubar Afeyan, founder and chief executive of Flagship and co-founder and chair of Extuitive, said: “By applying advanced AI to democratise product innovation and marketing, Extuitive is enabling a new class of entrepreneurs to create and amplify with the speed, insight and sophistication once limited to the world’s largest companies.”
The venture builds on Flagship’s legacy in consumer product optimisation, including Affinnova, a Flagship company acquired by Nielsen in 2014. Extuitive’s leadership team includes Sunand Menon as president and Chong Guo as chief science officer, with support from Flagship senior partner Jim Gilbert and Nielsen executive chair David Kenny on its board.
Flagship recently raised $3.6 billion to fund the creation of around 25 new companies across health, sustainability and AI. Afeyan said generative AI offered “an engine of discovery and design” with the power to accelerate company growth in ways previously unimaginable.
Extuitive’s debut highlights the potential of AI to level the playing field for small businesses, equipping them with the same tools that once only large corporations could afford. Its launch underlines a growing shift towards making AI-driven entrepreneurship accessible, inclusive and impactful on a global scale.
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