The key facts

  • Gudea analyzes behavior, connections, and information pathways across 500+ platforms, including X, Reddit, and TikTok
  • Founded in 2023; about 40 clients, including Fortune 50 companies and government agencies
  • Raised $7 million seed round (Mudita Venture Partners and Silicon Road Ventures), totaling approximately $15 million

A 'storm tracker for the internet'

Gudea, which describes itself as a 'storm tracker for the internet,' uses AI to help organizations spot brewing problems on social media before they turn into a crisis. According to TechCrunch, the company presented its project on the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 on Wednesday.

How Gudea differs from traditional platforms

Unlike classic social listening platforms that track mentions, hashtags, and impressions, Gudea aims to show who is driving the conversation, how information moves, how quickly a story is gaining momentum, and where it may go next. The company's AI analyzes behavior, connections, and information pathways across more than 500 mainstream and fringe sites and platforms, including X, Reddit, and TikTok. The goal is to give decision-makers context on the growth of mentions so they can determine how — and whether — to respond.

Founders and origins

Gudea was founded in 2023 by Keith Presley, Jonathan Sperber, and James Tomin. Presley, the CEO and founder, has more than 15 years of experience in political campaigns and defense, including building infrastructure for Andrew Yang's presidential campaign. Sperber, the chief strategy officer, works on disinformation research, while CTO Tomin holds a PhD in chemical engineering with roughly 20 years of experience in AI and machine learning. Presley admitted he never planned to start a company: the team began with the nonprofit George Washington Initiative, created after the 2020 election. It adapted intelligence community methods previously used against networks linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIS for domestic information campaigns. Finding that existing tools did not show how information actually moves between people, groups, and platforms, the team created Gudea.

Clients and the growing threat

Three years after its founding, Gudea has nearly 40 clients. According to Presley, they include a Fortune 50 telecommunications company, a Fortune 50 retailer, 'one of the largest AI labs in the world,' 'one of the largest groups in the world,' PR and crisis agencies, as well as government agencies. With the spread of generative AI, Presley believes, the need for the technology has grown: AI has dramatically reduced the cost and effort of creating content and coordinating campaigns. 'When we started in 2021, and then as a company in 2023, maybe one in four of the things we were checking had inauthentic activity. Now it's probably nine out of ten,' TechCrunch quotes Presley as saying.

Plans and investment

Gudea plans to expand its understanding of the origins of narratives and how they spread. A key initiative for the coming year is narrative geolocation, which should make it possible to determine where conversations are taking place down to the city block. The company also wants to give clients access to analytical tools: for example, an ad campaign could be run through Gudea's AI model before launch to assess the risk of a negative outcome. Last week, the company announced it had raised a $7 million seed round co-led by Mudita Venture Partners and Silicon Road Ventures, bringing total funding to approximately $15 million.