Aurigin.ai: The Venture Leader Technology detecting deepfakes in audio and video

21.03.2025 10:00, Rita Longobardi

Meet Luzi Sennhauser, Co-Founder of Aurigin.ai. The security startup helps individuals and businesses to regain trust in digital media and communication. Luzi and the other nine Swiss National Technology Team members will fly to Silicon Valley in April.

Name: Luzi Sennhauser
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Nationality: Swiss
Graduated from: ETH Zurich & MIT
Job title: Co-Founder and CTO
Number of employees: 5
Money raised: CHF 1.1M
 

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Can you tell us who your product or solution helps, and how?
Aurigin.ai helps financial institutions, governments, and other businesses regain trust in digital communication through an additional layer of security for their communication channels. Our AI-powered solution detects AI-generated fraud, deepfakes, and deception in audio and video, preventing impersonation and misinformation. We combine AI deepfake detection models with cryptographic signing technology to prove ownership making digital interactions secure and verifiable.

What market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup in that market?
We operate in the fast-growing AI security and fraud prevention market expected to grow to USD 15.7B in 2026, with a 42% CAGR. At Aurigin.ai we aim to become the leading fraud detection and prevention company, securing digital communication across financial services, media, and enterprise security. We aim to significantly reduce the currently over 300 billion USD in fraud losses every year in the financial sector only, which are likely to increase and expand into other industries with the rise of AI adoption and decreasing costs of deepfake creations.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
Both of us co-founders have been around the AI, fraud and abuse space for a long time. With AI quality improving so drastically over the last years, we both realized that we cannot trust our ears and eyes anymore, and felt a call to action. If that was the fuel for our idea, then Andreas Sennheiser, owner and Co-CEO of the audio equipment company, was the spark and he brought us all together on one table to discuss how we could tackle that solution together. And that’s where this journey started, aiming to steer this “AI cargo train” in the right direction.
 

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What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how do you think it will help you achieve your vision?
Our goals for the Venture Leaders roadshow in the US are three-fold:
1. Increase global visibility and access to large banks.
2. Leverage the opportunity to pitch in the Valley and explore integration with Big Tech ecosystems, aiming for our tech to be embedded in every phone or video call.
3. Raise our seed round by connecting with investors who can offer financial and network support.

Key achievements to date:
1. Raised pre-seed funding, backed by the Sennheiser Family Office.
2. AI model detects 98% of deepfakes, exceeding industry benchmarks.
3. Launched MVP suite, including a browser extension and Zoom plugin for real-time call verification.
4. Gaining traction with banks, cybersecurity firms, and regulatory bodies.

Is there a key principle or value that guides you as you build your company?
Trust is central to everything we do—both in our product and as a team. We combine flexible work from across Switzerland with a strong sense of trust, enabling us to make bold decisions and rely on one another. With the AI revolution underway, our strategy is clear: “Go big or go home.”

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?
As a startup, you have one shot - and that’s your greatest advantage. Big companies can afford to experiment, fail, and pivot endlessly, but startups don’t have that luxury. We have to be laser-focused, execute fast, and make every move count. That urgency is how we outmanoeuvre giants with far greater resources. We win by being bolder, more agile, and more relentless in solving the problem better than anyone else.

What is your favorite productivity hack or tool and why?
My favorite tool is the Cursor IDE - it sped up my programming by a factor of 4 or more. It doesn’t feel like it will ever replace me; instead, it amplifies my capabilities, allowing me to focus on the most intellectually challenging problems while offloading the repetitive, less demanding tasks. My best productivity hack? Giving people uninterrupted time to work and keeping meetings minimal but highly relevant. We trust each other to execute independently, so when we do meet, it's focused, efficient, and impactful. This balance allows us to make tangible progress every day.

What was your dream job when you were a child?
It changed every year - one year, I wanted to be a helicopter pilot, another year a locomotive driver, and at some point, even a math teacher. "AI startup founder" definitely wasn’t on the list - maybe because it wasn’t even a thing back then.