Loka AI wins startup funding from AI+Munich
20. March 2024
Loka AI wins 2nd place in the BayStartUP competition
18. March 2025Since May 2024, Loka AI has been actively participating in the "Digital Welcome Center" competition, an AI-supported information portal designed to assist Munich citizens and city staff in accessing relevant information (e.g., from KVR, employment office, etc.). This initiative aimed to streamline the search process for users, ensuring they receive personalized and accurate information effortlessly.
Throughout the competition, we had the invaluable opportunity to collaborate closely with the city's IT Referat. These discussions were instrumental in understanding the specific requirements and challenges, allowing us to develop a prototype that demonstrates our capability in secure AI document search for businesses on a large scale. Our prototype addresses a common use case: new residents or city staff can pose questions and easily navigate to the information they need through natural language queries.
Our demo was built using an open-source LLM (Large Language Model), the RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) library, and a rapid prototyping user interface builder. This combination enabled us to deliver precise answers sourced from stadt.muenchen.de.
On 23.07.2024, we proudly presented our software demo to the city of Munich as one of the three finalists. In the prototype, Stadt München employees only need to enter a query in natural language while performing hotline support, and they receive a clear and accurate response. This solution can potentially reduce the time city staff spend searching for answers by up to threefold, significantly enhancing citizen satisfaction.
At the end, while we were honored to be among the selected finalists, we ultimately could not agree with the city on the terms to continue with the complete project to the end.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to the winners and wish them every success.
Future Prospects and Continuous Innovation
Although we could not finalize the terms with the city, our participation in the Digital Welcome Center competition has opened up new avenues for innovation and collaboration. We are thrilled about the upcoming co-creation projects with legal offices and headhunters. These projects will allow us to further refine our AI solutions, tailoring them to specific industry needs and ensuring they deliver maximum value and efficiency.
Read more about Münchner Innovationswettbewerb 2024.