What Does Your Company Do?
“People think with two minds, one creative and linguistic, the other analytical and precise. Today’s AI has only the first. It writes code and supports research, but it is non-deterministic. The same input can produce a different output. That is fine for an email, but not for forecasting, where a small error can cost millions, even billions. The cost is everywhere. Most self-directed investors lose money, poor energy grid forecasting means more pollution and higher power bills, and retailers lose $1.7 trillion to overstock and stock-outs.
CyAura is building the second mind. Our engine, CyAura Soul (Self-Optimizing Universal Learner), builds a forecasting model for anything that needs one, from a stock to a product to a power grid. Each model adapts to the business, field and location, and keeps evolving as conditions change. Users keep the intuitive interface they know from today’s AI, while Soul works behind it, and the same input always gives the same output.
Soul does not need to be perfect to be useful, so it earns while it learns. We start with finance, where two betas are live. Tracker makes your portfolio talk to you through avatar briefings. Trader lets someone who used to test a few strategies a day run a million backtests in minutes.”
What Inspired You To Start It?
“I’m a scientist by training, with a PhD from the University of Auckland, where I worked on complex, multi-variable systems. In 2017, I brought together about 15 PhD students and researchers to understand the crypto market. Our quantitative models made great returns, until the market turned and we lost it just as fast, because we had no downside protection. We met weekly at my house to find a mathematical way to beat the market, but our models were so complex they would have needed 100,000 years of computing on our laptops.
What we lacked was precision and better architectures. My research had always come back to forecasting and the time optimisation of multi-variable processes, so we set out to make high-level quantitative models fast, precise and accessible for everyday investors. Today’s advances, and a lot more work, have completely transformed those first static models into what CyAura is today, but that was the spark.”
What Is One Win (big or small) You’re Celebrating Now?
“We released two small finance betas to give people a glimpse of this new generation of AI. Generative interfaces, such as an avatar that talks you through your portfolio, are backed by an analytical brain that delivers the precision. We now have 35 closed-beta testers, all through organic discovery with nothing spent on marketing, and they are helping us make it more intuitive.
The bigger signal is that people in fields where precision is hard to achieve, from power grids to robotics, have asked to test Soul on their own problems while keeping the ease of LLMs. That pushed us further into the deep tech. Scale will make a huge difference to its power, so we are being smart and efficient with every step.
We also brought on Janine Grainger, co-founder of Easy Crypto, as an advisor and Executive in Residence through the Ministry of Awesome Founder Catalyst program. I had always wanted her on our board, and having her experience is a massive win.”
What Is One Lesson You Wish You Learned Earlier?
“Our initial Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) for our fintech vertical was completely wrong. We originally assumed our core audience would be university finance students and 18 to 19 year olds. When we went out to test that, we realised we did not even speak the same language. Our real audience turned out to be builders, tradespeople, and working adults aged 22 to 35 who want practical, straightforward investment tools.
Even in deep tech you need a path to commercialization, you do not need to build the whole car to test the engine. Put the core technology in front of real users early even if it does not have a face yet. Their feedback can save months of work and show you where its greatest value lies.”
How Do You Keep Your Energy Up On Tough Days?
“Action sports are my main release valve. When you are tackling complex deep tech problems and get stuck, trying to smash through a brick wall repeatedly only leads to burnout. Sometimes taking a day or two off lets your brain reset so you can come back fresh.
I have torn muscles, ligaments and broken more ribs than I can count over the years doing action sports, but getting active is the best way for me to reset. It completely clears my head and keeps my enthusiasm high when things get tough.”
Learn More
Who: Q&A with Dr Matheus Vargas, cofounder of CyAura
HQ: New Zealand
Web: cyaura.ai